Rise Of The Escaryuba
by A-Lord-Over-Birds
Summary: Giygas is cosmic dust now, but Eagleland is threatened by a new and unusual race. Help from the future and a peculiar stranger come to their aid, but a new pair of enemies complicates matters. Well, ROTE is done, go read the sequel, when done ROTE!
1. The Hike

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Earthbound or Mother 3.

Prologue

Not long after defeating Giygas, the group had gone their own ways for a time. They still saw each other at times, but other than that lived their own lives. Finally, Ness, Paula and Jeff organized a jungle hike. They had not been able to persuade Poo to come. He had said, "I must continue my studies."

Finally, a new adventure begins. A strange combo of foes presents a new challenge, but help from the future will change everything.

Keep in mind that the characters are older and may have changed a bit. Plus I'm not actually that good with being in character.

Chapter One: The Hike

[An island in the South Pacific, near Eagleland. Present day]  
A long walk in the jungle was planned that day. Jeff had been unable to come due to "technical issues" with the Sky Runner, although Ness suspected Jeff simply did not like the trees and jungles.

"Honestly," said Paula.

"Yes a jungle. So what if I get a tick or two? 'S long as I don't get Lyme disease, I'll be fine," replied Ness.

"And if you do get Lyme disease?"

"Well, I guess I'm done for, aren't I?"

They were preparing for the hike now, packing the essentials: bug spray, water, food, rope, and the like. Ness strapped his baseball bat to his back and put on his pack. Paula also put on her pack. "Let's go, then," said Ness. And they walked out the hotel door.

Ten minutes later, they were hiking through the jungle. It was hot, and mosquitoes were swarming them in large clouds, waiting for the bug spray to wear off. It soon became hard to see due to the number of insects. "Seriously!" cried Paula in annoyance. "PK Fire!" She swept a hand across the cloud of insects, and they exploded in fire, one by one and rapidly, before sizzling to the ground. The insect clouds had soon gone, leaving a black circle of burnt bugs on the ground.

Ness was sure something would go wrong, like when that lady had lured them into the hotel at Threed only to ambush them with a squad of zombies. Or when Paula had been kidnapped on a trip to the mall to investigate the strange closing several days before their arrival.

"How big is this jungle?" asked Paula.

"Well..." replied Ness. "About...er...I'm not sure."

"You should at least do research on where you're going before you go there."

"I'm a fourteen year old boy. Do you think I'd do research on where I was going for fun?" said Ness, at the same time realizing what he had said was true. He laughed quietly to himself.

"Well, it's not very fun here. I just found a tick on my hand...how in the world did it get there?"

Ness shook his head. "No idea," he laughed. "You're not yourself anymore." He looked at the tick on his own hand, one of which he had not complained. He tapped it lightly with a glowing finger and it fell off, flailing wildly. They stopped to rest for a minute in a small clearing.

"Here," said Ness, and he tapped the tick on Paula's hand. It, too, fell off flailing. "Those things are creepy," said Paula. "Eh," replied Ness, who was more interested in examining the wound that tick had made on his hand. It was small. Suddenly, in his peripheral vision, he noticed a glow radiating from under a bush. He walked over to the bush and shoved it aside. He regretted that decision; the light was blinding and he shielded his eyes for a second as the light died down. When it was nothing more than a soft glow, he peered down at...a hole in the ground? Either way, he jumped in. "Ness! Hey!" yelled Paula. "Guess I can't be a proper girl anymore...." she said to herself, before jumping in with her pack and at the same time realizing being a proper girl was boring.

Ness landed on a sandy floor. "Oof." He realized Paula had jumped in after him and rolled out of the way as she, too landed with an "oof." "Where are we?" asked Ness. "In a hole," replied Paula, and they laughed. The glow was emnating from what looked like a large and impressive hilt. Ness picked it up. Instantly he felt empowered by some strange force. Then he noticed the large jewel that was supposed to be in the hilt was missing. "Huh," he said. "What is that?" asked Paula.

"Looks like a hilt," replied Ness. "It's missing the jewel."

"Wonder where it went?" said Paula.

"Certainly not anywhere near here," Ness grumbled. Why have a hilt with no jewel? Suddenly the ground began to quake.

"We'd better get out of here!" yelled Ness in alarm, before diving narrowly out of the way of a large boulder that was about to fall on him. Paula darted back over to where they had fallen and looked around. "A ladder!" she cried. "Quick!" Ness got up and bolted over to it, climbing up faster than he had ever climbed. Paula closely followed. He poked his head out of the hole and spotted a stampeding group of brown and black creatures heading away from them. Suddenly, they turned back and charged at Ness, who had climbed out of the hole. Paula followed, but they quickly realized they were in danger. The trees would be impossible to climb without special equipment, and they had no time to get ropes. It would take too long. Suddenly a rope fell down in front of them. "Climb up!" somebody hissed. Without hesitation, Ness and Paula climbed up the rope as the creatures charged under them.

Ness looked up to see a familiar face.

"Frank!" he exclaimed. "How in the world--"

"Well," said Frank. Frank was the former leader of a gang known as the Sharks. After Ness had destroyed a robot Frank had created, then hit Frank again and again with his baseball bat, he had given in. Now they were friends.

"I was walking along here when this little black creature came running at me," continued Frank. "It looked like a large, three-legged spider. It jumped at me and tried to suck the life out of me, but I knifed it and it...well, it sort of oozed something that smelled like bananas but looked like pancake batter, and then it shriveled up. I've been hiding up here ever since."

"And how long has that been?" asked Paula, although she knew it was at least a week--this guy really needed a shower.

"About two and a half weeks," replied Frank.

"Smelled like bananas, eh?" said Ness as the creatures charged past them again, closer to the tree this time. "I think I smelled that down on the ground..." Ness quickly rappeled down the tree and paused for a moment at the ground. "Yep!" he called up. "Definitely smells like bananas."

"Weird," said Paula. "Hey, those creatures are coming again!" Ness climbed back up the rope, dangling just above the creatures (which were even closer to the tree than before) for a second before climbing back up into the higher branches and Frank's makeshift habitat. Ness noticed the brown creatures had horns.

"The black creatures look a lot like the one that attacked me," mumbled Frank to himself. Paula heard him.

"What?" she cried. "You mean if we go down there we'll get eaten by a bunch of things that smell like bananas!?"

"Well, probably," replied Frank. "But I think we're safe up--Whoa!" He never finished that sentence, as the brown and black creatures charged the tree and knocked the trio out of it. The tree was also starting to fall, right on top of where Frank had landed. Ness and Paula dodged the stunned beasts and ran over to Frank, who got up quickly.

"I'm fine," he said.

The tree creaked and began to tilt as the creatures slowly recovered themselves. One by one, they turned and faced Ness, Paula, and Frank and approached them slowly, menacingly. Suddenly Ness had an idea. The tree was falling. If he could push it at the creatures...he did not finish that thought. Instead he quietly crept to the tree, as not to alert the approaching beasts, and pushed it at them. It tilted...tilted...fell. With an astounding crash, the tree toppled over onto the first row of creatures and formed a barrier with its thick trunk against the rest. Suddenly, the creatures rushed. "PK Flash!" yelled Ness, and at the same time Paula yelled "PK Fire!" The flash startled them, so that they were unprepared for the flames that scorched them as they recovered from the flash. Ness cracked one over the head with his baseball bat, and it crumpled to the ground. Frank took out some knives and began throwing them. The brown beasts fell as the knives stuck in them, but the black creatures dodged swiftly, so that some knives ended up in the ground. Paula rolled to one side as a black creature leapt for her head, and blasted it with a PK Freeze. Just then, many black creatures leapt for their heads at once. Ness had to do something. They would die."PK Fire!" cried Paula from behind him, and torched the majority of them as they shot through the air, leaving only three. One grabbed Frank, and Ness ran up to him and zapped the black thing with PSI Paralysis. It went rigid and fell off Frank's arm. Ness remembered how he had zapped the ticks lightly with PSI Paralysis, just enough to make them let go. A creature launched itself at Paula, and she whacked it with a frying pan as it neared. "You could be on the baseball team!" yelled Ness jokingly as he smashed the last one with his bat. Then he remembered the other creatures. "PK Rockin!" he yelled. Light slashed through the air, injuring the beasts. Then there were several small explosions, followed by many flashes of light. Finally, there was a massive explosion of energy which sent every creature flying through the air, dead. They sighed in relief. Just then, a loud humming came from above.

"Oh, not again!" said Ness, but Paula cried, "Jeff!" Sure enough, the Sky Runner was floating above them. They moved over so Jeff could land it, and he walked out carrying a laser.

"Hey," he said with a smile at seeing his friends again. "I was flying here when I saw the explosions, and I came to investigate. Of course it was you." He said this to Ness, sounding rather cheery.

"We'd better get in that UFO thing and get outta here," said Frank. Sure enough, several of the black creatures were creeping in through the trees. Jeff noticed one close to his face and shot it in a panic. With a squeal it jumped off the tree and ran off. The rest jumped at the group, which dived quickly into the Sky Runner. Jeff took them back to Winters.

With a small clunk, the Sky Runner landed and they filed out of it into the lab of Dr. Andonuts. "That was scary," breathed Paula. "Talk about it," said Ness, whose bat smelled like bananas.

"Ugh...can't get that smell off," he muttered angrily, rubbing it.

"What's wrong with the bat?" asked Jeff.

"Got the smell of bananas on it ever since I whacked one of those black things," replied Ness.

"Let me see it," said Jeff.

He took the bat and examined it closely, spotting a bit of yellowish mush. Then he zapped the spot with the mush under a machine. "Organic matter detected," said the machine in a female voice. "C'mon, OMS," said Jeff.

"Why are you calling that thing Oms?" asked Ness.

"OMS is an acronym," replied Jeff. "Organic Matter Scanner. Bananas are organic. I want to see what kind of banana you hit. You may have discovered a new type out there."

"I didn't hit a banana!" exclaimed Ness. "I hit a black thing that was trying to suck my brains out."

"Organic matter type identified," said OMS. "Matter type: Animal."

"Animal?" said Jeff in confusion. "But it was a banana!"

"Data says that the type of living thing this came from is an animal, not a plant," OMS replied. "Searching databases...no matches found. Jeff, you may have discovered a new animal."

"It was Ness, actually," said Jeff. "But I still think it was a banana." Then he walked over to the window and yelled, "Dad! I think OMS has a bug or something!" Dr. Andonuts came in.

"Really?" he asked. He was around 45, rather short and with white hair and glasses. He pressed a button on OMS and the voice said,

"Powering down."

Then Dr. Andonuts opened OMS. "You'd better run along, kids. This will take a while." The group left, leaving Frank and Dr. Andonuts to examine OMS. It was late evening and snowing.

"So you say it was a black creature trying to suck out your brains?" asked Jeff.

"Yep," replied Ness.

"Moreover a rotten banana fell on your head and you whacked it again and again, and waited around while it dried. Those creatures back in the jungle were just big spiders."

"No, you git!" yelled Ness. "They were there!"

"They were!" exclaimed Paula. Jeff looked skeptical.

"Really?" said Ness. "You really saw three-legged spiders."

"I guess I did," replied Jeff. Ness grumbled to himself. Gaah, he thought.

"What's with him? He was never like this before," Ness said quietly to Paula as they watched Jeff go off towards the cave.

"I have a feeling we're about to find out," replied Paula. Ness nodded. He trusted her. She was the one who had called Jeff with a psychic message, thus saving them from the Threed zombies. She had also defeated Giygas by praying. The people of Eagleland had prayed, feeling a strange urge to do so. Finally, a strange force known only as "The Player" had came in with their input on the praying and destroyed Giygas. Together, Ness and Paula walked off into the snow. They were both thinking about Jeff and what might have happened to him.

* * *

Chapter 2 coming soon.


	2. The Return Of Starmen

Chapter 2: The Return Of Starmen

"Well," said Paula. "Why do you think Jeff is acting this way?" They were sitting on cliff, their feet touching a ledge that extended five feet from the cliff, watching what sunset they could see.

"Well, he saw something very clearly and is still denying it. A scan of the stuff on my bat said it was of an unknown animal. And yet he still denies it. So we can rule out hormones...that leaves alien abduction, mind control, impersonation, and Jeff simply losing his memory," said Ness.

"We can rule out memory loss and impersonation--we were with him the whole time, and I saw him studying in a small chamber of the Sky Runner," replied Paula. Ness thought for a moment.

"You're right. Nobody can study like Jeff. But mind control and alien abduction...."

"We can tell for sure," said Paula.

"How?" asked Ness, before he realized. "Oh. So when do we gather the crocodiles?" Paula hit him on the leg. It hardly hurt, considering how powerful and strong Ness was. However, the reason it actually hurt is because Paula was also quite powerful, but more in the PSI department.

"No, stupid! I was talking about using PSI. There's a way to determine if he was abducted by aliens. And the only aliens I can think of are Starmen, and they're revealed through an X-Ray PSI." Ness nodded in understanding. "But we'll need an electric shock to reveal the Starman if he really is a Starman in disguise."

"I though we ruled out impersonation," said Ness.

"Well, I meant human impersonation. Aliens are different," explained Paula.

"As for the electric shock, a tazer might work," said Ness.

"We're going to get one where?" asked Paula.

"The alternative is PK Thunder," warned Ness. "And that can miss terribly. You remember that story we heard about the PK Thunder that accidentally hit a house?"

"Tazer it is, then," said Paula. She did not want to destroy Dr. Andonuts's lab. Ness leaned back against a tree. He sighed.

"This is weird," he said. "All I planned for was a normal day, and we find this." He opened the side pocket of his pack, which was laying on the ground nearby, took out the glowing hilt, tossed it up in the air, caught it, and replaced it in the pocket. "Then we nearly get killed by a horde of monsters." Paula suddenly remembered that the hilt was missing a jewel. She told Ness of this. "Oh, yeah!" said Ness. He took out the hilt once again and tossed it to Paula, who fumbled a little bit as she caught it. She examined the hilt on every side.

"What's this?" she wondered aloud.

"Let me see," requested Ness. She showed him a small inscription in a language they did not recognize. "Huh." He frowned.

"Strange, isn't it?" said Paula.

"Very," replied Ness. She gave him the hilt and he placed it back in the pocket. He then checked the watch he had gotten for his birthday. 8:27. "We'd better be getting back," Ness said to Paula. She nodded, and got up. Ness picked up his pack, and the two walked back to the lab.

It was midnight. "Where are we supposed to find a tazer?" asked Paula.

"Keep looking," instructed Ness. He found a large metal box with many chambers. He opened a few. Weapons! "Paula!" he hissed. "Come here!" She sneaked over. They were not supposed to be doing this. "Weapons," he gestured. She glanced at him through the darkness, perhaps a little too long. They both shifted uncomfortably.

"Perfect," she said with a nod, acting as if nothing had happened, and the two proceeded to search the arsenal. Finally, in a small side chamber, a tazer was found.

"Wonder why they have all these?" said Ness.

"Well, it can get dangerous up here, I suppose. Large tundra, with wolves and things," reasoned Paula quietly. They removed the tazer from the chamber and crept back to their beds in a small side room in the basement.

"G'night," said Ness. Jeff and Dr. Andonuts were on the second floor, but they still spoke quietly.

"Good night," replied Paula, and they dropped off to sleep.

The next morning, Paula rose before Ness. She got out of bed and walked across the room.

"Ness," she said, shaking him gently.

"Eh?" he said, before sitting up and rubbing his eyes with a yawn.

"Remember the plan?" asked Paula.

"Huh? Oh, of course I do," repied Ness. He took the tazer out from under the bed and checked the battery. Fully charged.

"Who's going to use the PSI?" asked Paula.

"Well, I assumed it would be you," said Ness, "seeing as you're the PSI person." She nodded.

"Let's go."

"Right now?" asked Ness.

"Yes, right now, when Jeff--or the Starman--will be groggy and we stand a slightly better chance. Now come on." Ness understood, and walked up the stairs. They walked across the first floor and up the second flight of stairs and into Jeff's room. Paula's eyes glowed yellow as she exhaled slightly. She gasped.

"Circuitry!" she said, horrified.

Ness reacted quickly. He leapt across the room and stabbed the ends of the tazer into the Starman's fake skin. He pressed the trigger. Electricity flowed through the prongs. Starman-Jeff had woken up at the tazer stabbing him and was unprepared for the shock. The fake body melted off, leaving the Starman there in a pool of thick liquid. Ness brandished the tazer. It stood up quickly and faced the two humans. Standing about 5'8", it was not much taller than Ness and Paula. However, it was wider. A large, iron-gray body with thick, tough-looking legs and squarish feet stood before them. It had no arms or face--only a pair of tentacles and a black visor where its eyes would be. It swiped a tentacle at them, blasting PK Fire Beta, Ness and Paula rolled out of the way.

"Idea!" cried Ness. "Roll again! Cross me!"

They rolled past each other, Ness managing to electrify Paula's frying pan with the tazer. She had taken it out when the Starman got up. The rubber handle prevented shock, but the pan was temporarily electrified. Her eyes widened a little as it crackled.

"Electrified!" yelled Ness as he rolled around the Starman's back and did a flip mid-roll, running the tazer along where its spine would be and delivering a shock. He flipped over its head and merged into a run as he hit the ground, running up the wall and doing a flip as the Starman shot more PK Fire. Paula shot PK Fire Gamma at it, but it warped across the room and faced Ness as he stood up after the back flip. He ducked as it attempted to smack him with a tentacle, then zapped its leg as it reached down.

"NESS!" screamed Paula. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? IT'S ALREADY BEEN REVEALED!" That felt like a mental slap in the face.

"Duh!" he said to himself as he took out his bat and smashed the Starman over the head with it before thrusting it into the robot's midsection, snapping it. There was a minor explosion; Ness obtained a burn. Paula used PSI Shield to dodge the blast.

"PSI Heal," said Ness, waving his hand over the burn. It healed instantly.

"Now..." said Paula. "We face the question of, 'Where's Jeff?'" Ness swore. How could he have forgotten? He suspected he would find clues in the Sky Runner.

"Remember when the door to the compartment Jeff was in suddenly slammed shut?" he said, as things clicked into place in his mind. "Maybe that's when it happened....We need to search the compartment."

"That's all good and well," said Paula, "but where's the Sky Runner?"

"Huh?" said Ness. He walked downstairs. Frank was there, with a sandwich. How had he not noticed the blast? Then Ness saw he had snow on him; he must have gone outside.

"Where'd Dr. Andonuts go?" asked Ness.

"Not sure," replied Frank. "He took that UFO."

"Crap," said Ness, and he raced out of the room, Paula close behind.

They ran out into the snowy plains. Ness closed his eyes, and began to glow. He opened his eyes sharply.

"That way!" he yelled, and charged into a cave.

"Wait up!" cried Paula. They ran through the cave. Ness leaped over the edge of a small cliff and landed on his feet, running. Paula slid down a rope and ran after Ness. They left the cave and Ness ran into another cave. They ran through a maze the wrong way, and soon found a lake. A monkey and his girlfriend frolicked in a snowy tree. Ness took out some gum.

"Hey, Bubble Monkey!"

Bubble Monkey looked up. ("Ness!") he yelled. ("Hey, is that gum?")

"It is," replied Ness. "We need to see Tessie."

("No problem!") The monkey took a stick, chewed it, and floated up above the lake. Ness and Paula were breathing hard. Soon, the wind began to blow. The lake rippled, and then the large lake monster rose up out of the water.

("Need a ride?") asked Tessie.

"Yeah!" said Ness. He and Paula climbed onto Tessie's back, and they sailed across the lake. Soon they were charging up ledges, dodging rams and wolves, until Ness found a large plain.

"Paula," he said, "grab my hand. This is about to get a little rough."

"What are you--" Paula was cut off as she took Ness's hand and he spun. The two disappeared in a large flash of energy that scorched all nearby trees. Soon they found themselves in Threed.

"Why couldn't you have just teleported then and there?" asked Paula.

"The flash would have lit something on fire. It's a little unusual...it never used to do that," replied Ness. Meanwhile, the Sky Runner was nowhere to be found. But Ness had other plans. "Right," he said. "Remember that small path behind the graveyard? And the clearing next to it?" They had discovered a small clearing when the zombies had disappeared from their spots.

"Yes," replied Paula. They both realized they were still holding hands and let go quickly.

"We're headed there," said Ness. They ran through the graveyard, dodging the small insects which were naturally mean. They weaved through the trees and leaped over the rope ladder leading down into the pit, and came to a small clearing with the Sky Runner in it. Dr. Andonuts was nowhere to be found. Ness and Paula crept into the Sky Runner, which was open, and, after opening the door, into the compartment Jeff was in. Something fell onto Ness's head.

"What the--" Ness yelled, jumping up in shock. He plucked it from his head.

A rotting mouse had been nailed to the door, but the loose nail had fallen off. The mouse had a large wound in its side, and was very thin.

"Er...Paula?" he said. This is just getting weirder....thought Ness. Dead mice nailed to doorways. Paula walked across the Sky Runner and screamed when she saw the mouse.

"What the..."

"That's what I said when it fell on my head," said Ness grudgingly.

Paula frowned. "What is all this about?" she asked.

Ness shook his head. "I don't know." The two of them continued their search.

"Ness?" said Paula, sounding scared.

"What?" he said, coming to her. "God!" Blood splattered the wall. "I took a brief forensics course in school," said Ness. "It came from...holy...Jeff?"

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It'll get less serious next chapter. Honestly! And I know this was a short chapter. If I kept going the title wouldn't make sense.


	3. The Icy Grip of The Undead

Chapter Three: The Icy Grip of The Undead

**A/N**: The writing gets better later. Please R&R, because I could really use some advice... I'm not too pleased with this, but still...

* * *

"Jeff! Jeff! Wake up!" Ness shook him roughly. Paula placed two fingers on Jeff's neck.

"He's got a pulse," she said. "But he won't last long. He's got a head wound. Looks like a wound from a club."

"We have to get him out of here. You grab his legs," ordered Ness. The two of them carried Jeff from the compartment and out of the Sky Runner. "Looks like trouble," said Ness. Several angry bees shot their way.

"PK Fire!" cried Paula. Flames streamed from her fingertips and burned the insects to a crisp. They resumed carrying Jeff. However, a gang near the hospital held them up.

"Hold it," said one. "You ain't goin' in unless you pay us," said the leader.

"I'll pay you," said Ness, and Paula was confused until he said, "With a knuckle sandwich!" He punched the leader in the jaw. The leader stumbled and fell into a trash can.

"Oof," he said.

Two other members advanced on him. He ducked down and swept their legs out from beneath them. It was a large gang of about fifteen, and six more people advanced. Ness did a handspring, kicking one in the face before leaping off the side of the hospital.

"Paula!" he yelled while doing this. "Get Jeff into the hospital!" Paula levitated Jeff using PSI but three of the remaining guys advanced on her.

"Well, well, who do we have here? Aren't you pretty?" said a large brutish one. Paula glared at him. Suddenly he crumpled to the ground in front of her. Ness had been aiming for that guy when he jumped off the wall and had kicked him in the back of the head. Suddenly the other two grabbed Paula.

"You don't want to know what I'll do," said Paula. One guy raised an eyebrow. "PK Thunder!" yelled Paula as Ness hit one in the face with his bat, then kicked another one between the legs--hard. The guy crumpled to the ground, moaning. Meanwhile, lightning struck next to one guy and he let go of Paula's arm. "PK Freeze!" She shot an icy mass of energy at the other guy, who froze solid for a moment before being thawed by a PK Fire, as Paula did not want to kill him. Finally, three guys were left. They backed off and ran. The leader got up and said,

"You ain't got nothin' on the Rays! We'll get you one day!" before running off after the rest of his gang. Ness and Paula picked up Jeff and carried him into the hospital.

"Hey--somebody!" yelled Ness. "We have an emergency!" Immediately a doctor and two nurses came and they managed to get Jeff into an emergency room.

"Shoo, kids. You can't be in here while we give him sticthes and some medical care," replied the doctor. "That wound will take a while to heal. Now, shoo." Ness and Paula walked out of the room and sat down to wait.

"So much trouble," Ness sighed.

"Cheer up. Jeff will be fine!" said Paula. "Maybe he'll be able to tell us what happened." Suddenly a kid ran into the hospital. For some reason, the pair sitting on the bench felt uneasy. They were not sure why.

"Wonder who he is?" asked Paula.

"Whoever he is, he's making me feel uneasy...kinda angry," replied Ness.

"Hey--help! There's a guy out here! He's hurt! Z-z-zombie!" yelled the he raced back out the door.

"What the heck is he talking about, zombies?" said Ness. "I thought they were gone." Paula shook her head.

"Maybe it was a killer dressed like a zombie to scare people," she suggested.

"Well, we better go see." Ness got up and walked over to the door. He turned white. Paula raced over to him and turned white too. A zombie was staggering around out front, savaging those who got too close, thus zombifying them. The kid was standing on a tree branch above several zombies. He did not look scared. In fact, he raised a glowing hand. They could tell now he was about 13. "PK Love!" shouted the teen.

"Oh my God!' said Paula. "This can't be good."

The teen was sitting up in a tree, and white energy shot from his palm and swept across the zombies. Many were crushed under the PSI attack.

"OI!" Ness opened the door and several zombies leapt at him. "PK Fire!" shouted Paula as she dodged a zombie. She torched the nearest zombies with a stream of flame. The teen across the road looked confused and stunned. A zombie approached Ness. "PK Flash!" he yelled, and the alpha flash stunned the nearby zombies for a moment, in which Ness whacked their heads off with his bat by spinning rapidly. He kicked another one in the stomach, and it flew across the road and smashed into a building. The teen, now that he had seen Ness and Paula use PSI, sprinted off without a word. The zombies were all...

"Well, you can't say dead, because they're already dead," said Ness. "Let's stick with 're-dead'."

"Let's stop breaking the fourth wall," said the writer.* The zombies were all...re-dead. The doctor came out of the room a couple of hours later, and said that Jeff was fine but would have to stay in the hospital for a bit. Ness and Paula laughed in relief. They went upstairs, where Jeff had been moved.

"Hi," said Ness.

"How are you?" asked Paula.

"Hi, and good," replied Jeff. Just then, the phone rang. Jeff picked it up. His face turned weird, and he pressed the speaker phone button and held it towards Ness and Paula.

"Jeff Jeff Jeff Jeff Jeff Jeff Jeff Jeff Jeff Jeff Jeff Jeff Jeff Jeff Jeff Jeff Jeff Jeff Jeff Jeff Jeff hi! It's me, Tony! You okay, you okay?" Ness rolled his eyes. "Well, are you!?" said Tony.

"Jeez," said Ness. "What was that all about?"

"I'm not really sure," replied Paula. All three of them had a growing suspicion Tony was gay. Poo did not know who Tony was, as far as the rest knew. Jeff said a couple words back whenever Tony spoke, and soon hung up.

"You hear what he said?" said Jeff.

"All I heard was a dial tone after about five minutes," said Ness. Paula giggled. Jeff laughed. Jeff felt the back of his head. For a minute they were just three friends, until Ness remembered something.

"What happened in the Sky Runner? And do you know where your dad was planning to go today?"

"I...don't really remember anything of how that Starman attacked me. I remember that it attacked me and knocked me out, but I don't remember anything else. And my dad was planning to go to Threed today and get a dog body...he wanted to scan a bit of dog flesh under OMS. He was going to meet a lady behind the graveyard who would give him the flesh in a small bag..." Jeff gasped. "Ness! That lady who lured you guys into the zombies! You have to save my dad!" Ness nodded, and he and Paula ran out the door.

It was raining. Ness and Paula ran through the streets, their shoes creating splashes as they stepped in puddles. Lightning flashed.

"Whoa!" yelled Ness as a white dog ran in front of them.

"Aww, who would leave a dog like you out in the streets?" said Paula kindly.

"Stop!" warned Ness. "It could be a--King?" The dog had turned to them, and sure enough, it was King. "How did you....Why!?" sputtered Ness. King shook his head.

("No time"), he said. ("We have to save Dr. Andonuts.") The trio continued running, through the graveyard and around the back. Lightning struck a nearby grave. A hand reached out from it and grabbed Ness's ankle. A head burst from the earth.

"PK Freeze!" cried Paula. The head froze and Ness slipped free from the icy grip of the undead. He whacked its head off and the three of them continued. The Sky Runner was still there, but they ran past it, their hair matted with rain. Ness had removed his cap; it was soggy and dripped water in his ears. A small tent was spotted up ahead. The three of them charged around the front and inside of it. Dr. Andonuts was sitting there, perfectly okay.

"Dr. Andonuts!" said Ness in relief. Paula slumped on the ground. Ness followed suit, huddling up with King and Paula; it was cold. Ness dragged a blanket from his pack, and after drying off a little, they sat huddled under it. Ness asked Dr. Andonuts if he was going to meet a lady. Dr. Andonuts nodded.

"So what does this lady look like?" asked Ness.

"She said she would be dressed all in black," replied Dr. Andonuts. Ness and Paula exchanged looks.

"That's the issue," said Ness. "Do you know why Jeff left Snow Wood and joined us?"

"Suppose he had enough of that place," said Dr. Andonuts.

"No." Paula had spoken. "I had sent him a psychic message. We were captured by a lady dressed all in black, black sunglasses too. She had a team of zombies waiting in her hotel room, and also had a strange pull on Ness and I, so we followed her." Ness nodded. King, who was deciding to go with what they said, also nodded. Dr. Andonuts's eyes widened.

Hearing something rustle outside, Ness took action. "PSI Shield," he said. A psychic shield enveloped the tent.

"We should be safe for now," said Ness. Without a word he dropped off to sleep. Paula soon followed. King and Dr. Andonuts stayed awake, paranoid. Suddenly Ness sneezed.

"Oh, great," he said sleepily. "I've got a cold. PSI Heal." Suddenly a hand bashed at the air around the tent.

"No," breathed Dr. Andonuts. Ness, who was only half-asleep, snapped awake.

"Already?" he said. He roused Paula. "Zombies," he told her. She shuddered.

"PSI Shield!" she said. "That should buy us some more time while we plan." Ness poked his head out of the tent flap. They were surrounded.

"Fight like there's no tomorrow? I mean, we're surrounded," he said when he turned back to the other three.

"Better idea," said Paula. King seemed to be thinking along the same lines, and placed his paw in Ness's hand as Paula took his other.

"What am I supposed to do?" asked Ness.

"Teleport!" exclaimed Paula.

"Where? The Sky Runner?"

"Where else? Dr. Andonuts, take my hand and King's paw...." He did so, and with a green blast of energy they vanished into the very fabric of space, before reappearing moments later in the Sky Runner. The zombies were still attacking the tent, Ness reasoned, as the moans were not getting any closer. He closed the door and the four of them took off, landing a minute or two later at the hospital, on the roof. Nobody noticed the UFO-shaped object for some reason.

"We could do with some food just about now," said Ness. He called Mach Pizza.

"We need a pizza, please. Er, medium, no anchovies," he said. Several minutes later, a Mach Pizza guy came running into the hospital and up onto the roof.

"How do they get here so fast?" asked Paula.

"Well, they're Mach Pizza," explained Ness. "They must be fast." The guy crashed into Ness. He fell over onto the wet roof. "Too fast," he said, sitting up. Paula paid the guy and took the pizza. Then she sat on a stone block and sighed. King whimpered.

"I'm fine," said Ness as he stood. King shook his head.

"Why are you here, anyway?"

("I was getting to that,") King said.

"Ah. Go on, then."

("I heard from a monkey going around town that you were headed to Threed, and that zombies were on the loose again. The monkey was actually looking for your house, but I was the only one that could understand him. I didn't want you to get attacked by zombies again, so I came to warn you. When I got here, I spotted you guys heading into the graveyard. I went to follow you, but a zombie attacked me, and after I tore it apart you two were gone. So I wandered around a bit, and found out that Dr. Andonuts was in town. He apparently got famous from a recent invention. When I heard that he was going to get some dog flesh, I followed him in anger, and spotted a lady in black in the woods. I remembered your description of a lady in black and went to find you--to warn you--and then when you guys were going to save Dr. Andonuts I found you, and...well, you know what happened.")

"Makes sense, sort of," said Ness. Paula nodded. A zombie wandered past the hospital. The Mach Pizza guy was looking scared.

"How did you even get here?" asked Paula.

"Ran," he replied. "The zombies were gathering around something big in the field, but I didn't stop to look." Paula looked over the edge of the building. From here she could see the whole city. It was neat, but not pretty. Zombies were scattered throughout the town once more. She did not pay attention to the newly erected circus tent in the field. She merely assumed people had put it up for the traveling circus that occasionally passed by. (The old tent had been burned.)

"We're going to have to camp here for the night," said Paula. "Too many zombies." Ness nodded, and the five of them (even the Mach Pizza guy) quietly went into the hospital and into Jeff's room.

There was a small fight over where people would sleep. There was a small couch in the room, which Ness insisted Paula sleep on. Dr. Andonuts had settled for the chair. There were two chairs, but Ness preferred the floor. King, who was Ness's dog, fell asleep beside Ness.

"G'night," said Ness, falling asleep. It took longer for the other three to fall asleep. Eventually Dr. Andonuts fell asleep, but Jeff and Paula stayed awake. Ness and King were woken by the sound of a quiet voice. Ness motioned for King to be quiet.

"...so these three guys attacked me, and one got knocked out because Ness was already aiming for him when the guy turned on me, and the other two grabbed me..." Ah. She was recounting what had happened outside the hospital, thought Ness. She finished with her and Ness fighting the zombies outside and seemed to have forgotten the strange teen.

"You forgot that weird kid. We didn't just notice a bunch of slavering undead things outside," he said. Paula and Jeff jumped.

"Oh, wait!" she said. "You're right, Ness...I did forget. But how could I forget that uneasy feeling?"

"Weird, huh?" said Ness.

"Yup," she replied. Ness remembered that weird feeling. He remembered it like he remembered the pain when his arm was torn open a few months ago, by a caveman with a sharp stone. And he didn't like it at all.

"We're going to find that kid," announced Ness quietly. King nodded vigorously in the darkness.

("I wanna have an adventure, too,") he whimpered.

"What happened to LD?" asked Ness.

"LD?" said Paula in confusion.

"Lazy Dog," Ness explained. "Family nickname." Paula and Jeff nodded in understanding.

("I got tired of being tired,") said King. Ness laughed. King smiled.

"What time is it?" Ness asked Jeff. Jeff checked the small clock by his bed.

"3:17," he said.

"It's late," said Paula. "Well, late for a bedtime, but early for waking up." But Ness was already asleep. Paula shrugged, then yawned and went to sleep. Jeff was now the only one awake. He got up and peered out the window. A zombie was prowling the street. He shot it quietly with a laser, then crept back to bed. Somehow, he fell asleep.

Next morning, the doctor said Jeff would be fine, and the five of them went to the roof, where the Sky Runner was still parked. The Mach Pizza guy had departed, as daylight had not yet ceased to come. The zombies were all in hiding--for now.

"Let's go back to Winters," said Ness.

And they climbed in, took off, and left.

-  
I know this was a short chapter. It was more or less introducing zombies back into Threed, indicating something was wrong.  
*Ha, ha. I felt like doing something not-so-serious.


	4. Secrets of The Blades

Chapter 4: Secrets of The Blades

Winters was cold, Ness thought to himself as he sat on a couch in Dr. Andonuts's lab-home with Jeff and Paula. But it seemed colder after the warm Sky Runner. They all shivered when they stepped out of the machine.

"I'm going to change into something warmer," said Ness. He went downstairs and locked the door. Paula waited. About five minutes later Ness came out wearing a sweater and some thicker pants. He pulled on a jacket and walked out the door. There was a blizzard raging outside, but nobody minded. Paula soon came out, followed five minutes afterwards by Jeff. The three friends sat down in the circle of stone pieces known as Stonehenge for a small chat. UFOs were said to occasionally visit there. A strange man was watching the skies above the three. The ladder leading down into an old sort of base for Starmen was gone, as was the hole. They huddled together, back-to-back, in the center as the strange man took several steps closer.

"So what happened on the Sky Runner?" asked Ness once more.

"Well, I remember seeing something unusual on the radar," he said. "Then a flash alerted me. I pulled out my laser, but it hit me over the head with the nearest object it could, a lamp. He hit me with the base, and quite hard. I was knocked out. I remember a green light, and then waking up in the hospital." Ness frowned.

"Do you remember the black creatures?" he asked.

"They were kind of scary," Jeff recalled.

"OMS scanned a small bit of one creature, and identified it as an unknown animal," Ness told him. The strange man drew closer to them. Paula unintentionally grabbed the hands of both boys with a small gasp of fear. Ness went a little red; Jeff's pale face remained the same. However, Ness knew that gasp was not good. He dug in the ground a little bit with his remaining hand, out of nervousness, and his glove brushed something. He turned around and started digging in the dirt with his gloves. Buried not too far down was a rapier.

"What is this thing doing here?" asked Ness.

"Looks like someone buried it here. Maybe so they weren't arrested for weapon possession in public," said Jeff.

"Well, this isn't public," said Ness.

"Either way...near a school and not in a house, okay?" said Jeff. Ness nodded. He swished it through the air a little bit. It felt good in his hand. The man quietly drew a sword himself.

"Look at the guy!" Paula whispered in a panic. Ness whipped around and noticed the guy was drawing ever closer, wielding a sword. Ness readied himself. He had never fought with a sword before, but he would try. Besides, he took things in stride. He would probably be better than this guy.

"Hey," said Ness, by way of a deceptive greeting.

"Hey," replied the guy. They both hid their swords. King walked outside at the moment, his fur nearly matching the snow. The guy spotted King. As the dog walked by, he lifted the sword.

"Look out!" cried Ness, darting forwards and slashing the guy's midsection lightly. King shot forwards as the sword plunged down where he would have been. He growled ferociously before charging into the guy. The guy yelled as his leg was pierced by King's teeth. He slashed the white dog's side. Ness slashed rapidly at the guy's face. He parried and blocked Ness's blows. They dueled rapidly. Ness needed to find Poo after this; he needed sword training. The other two looked at each other. Paula unstrapped the frying pan from her back and crept around the guy's back, then hit him over the head. He fell over forwards. Ness leaped back, then saw Paula. "Thanks," he said. She nodded. Jeff and King walked back to the lab. Ness bent down to examine the guy, then he and Paula followed the other two. What Paula didn't notice was when Ness took the guy's wallet.

Ness opened the wallet, searching for an identity. Finally, he found one. "Richard Pronch," read Ness.

"Where'd you get that wallet?" asked Paula.

"The guy," Ness replied. "I was looking for an identity." He stood up and went out the door, coming back several minutes later without the wallet. "So why do you think he attacked us?" asked Ness, sitting down on a couch. Paula sat next to him, and King at his feet.

("He's a dog-hater,") said King.

"Nah," said Ness. "He was going to attack us before you came." The blizzard outside raged, and Jeff walked into the room carrying hot chocolate. The lab had been extended to form more of a house, as Jeff was now living there. He walked into the room and sat down on the end of the couch, next to Paula, where a table was.

He placed the mug on the table and said, "I think he attacked because he was being impersonated by a Starman." Ness suddenly thought about something. He picked up his rapier and sniffed the end. Bananas. His eyes went wide.

"What?" asked Paula.

"Smells like bananas and...something like mold and blood," said Ness, in a tone like someone who had just seen their best friend murdered before their eyes. Paula sniffed the rapier as well.

"Bananas..." She trailed off.

Jeff also sniffed it and had the same reaction. For a minute, the three friends sat without a word. Then King spoke up.

("Ness. Maybe he dropped a banana on his shirt.")

"It wouldn't leave such a clear smell unless he rubbed it into his flesh," said Ness. Paula nodded. "Plus, the moldy-blood smell?" he went on. Jeff nodded. Ness leaned against the armrest. King jumped up on the couch and wormed behind Ness and Paula. The blizzard made everyone rather cold.

"This is weird," said Ness. "But I think it has a connection to the banana creatures we met in the jungle." He gasped. "The jungle! The hilt!" He removed the hilt from his pack. Jeff gasped.

"An archaeological team recently found what appeared to be an old blade. They sent it to Dad for one of his machines to scan. Maybe...this hilt fits it!"

Ness grinned and sprung up from his place on the couch. He raced upstairs to find Dr. Andonuts. "Hey! Dr. Andonuts!" he said. "Do you remember that old blade? The one the archaeological team found?" Dr. Andonuts looked a little surprised that Ness knew about the blade, but he said, "Yes, what about it?"

"I believe I found the hilt." Dr. Andonuts gasped when Ness showed him the hilt. Paula, Jeff and King came up the stairs. Dr. Andonuts punched some numbers into a keypad next to a door, and the door opened. Ness marveled at the objects inside. A dinosaur skeleton, a strange machine with flashing lights, what appeared to be a plasma ray with a small electrified blade at the end, a stale pie, a box of something that looked like lit torches, an open crate with winged mice in it and a forcefield over the top, and many unusual machines.

"This is where I keep all my most valuable inventions and relics," Dr. Andonuts explained. Ness walked around, looking at the spectacular objects. There was silence as the three teenagers and the dog looked around.

"Well, here's the blade," said Jeff, breaking the silence.

Ness walked over. The hilt in his hand seemed to glow ever brighter as he approached the blade. The remaining jewels in the hilt were certainly glowing now, Ness though as he came closer. Then they flashed blindingly, seeming to explode in light. Ness reached out and picked up the blade. Slowly, delibrately, he inserted the blade into the slit in the top of the hilt. There was an earth-shaking explosion of energy, leaving everyone panting on the floor. Ness rose. The hilt had become shiny, polished. The middle seemed to be made of shiny silver scales. The metal parts of the hilt had become a blend of silver and gold. The blade was now a shiny, polished silver. It was lightweight, but Ness could tell it would pack a punch.

"Er...what just happened?" asked Paula.

"Something incredible," said Ness. Power flowed through him. The blade was his. It wanted him to own it. But it was missing something. The jewel!

"We need to find the jewel," said Ness. Suddenly he noticed another blade. "Where did that come from?" he asked.

"The two blades were found near each other. After the whole magic-PSI-aliens incident, everyone believes in magic now. The archaeologists though that they had a connection, so-" Dr. Andonuts was cut off by a brown dog leaping through the window and rolling across the floor, ninja-like.

King growled and launched himself at the dog. For a moment the two fought, then King began glowing silver. The brown dog was alarmed and let go of King. The glow settled, and King looked a little bewildered. The brown dog took advantage of that to steal the second blade. Ness charged across the room, tackling the dog and pinning it. He seized the blade and tossed it backwards. It slid across the floor. The dog wormed out from under Ness and Paula cried, "PSI Shield!" The invisible shield blocked the dog from going further. He bounced off of it and flew across the room. All of a sudden the five of them heard "PK Freeze!" An icy blast hit Ness, King and Jeff, who were not behind the shield.

"Hey!" yelled Ness. A girl with pink hair, a guy holding a giant staple, and someone familiar... "You!" yelled Ness, indicating the blond kid who had crushed the zombies under the PSI attack. "PK Rockin!" Light smashed into the three people, tossing them around. There were several small explosions, and then a series of light flashes which smashed the three of them into the walls. Last came the explosion, which blew off part of the wall. The shield lifted from in front of Paula and Dr. Andonuts. Jeff rolled behind a table and fired a bottle rocket at the guy, who had thrown a staple at Ness. The staple pinned Ness to another table.

"PSI Magnet!" he said. Unlike Paula's PSI Magnet, Ness's actually acted like a magnet and the staple flew into his hand. "PK Blast!" yelled Ness. The teen, who had sprung up and thrown a bomb at Ness, was pinned to the wall with the staple, which Ness had shot out of his hand with the PK Blast. Ness then rolled to the side as the bomb exploded, throwing him to the side.

"Ack...PK Flash!" shouted the teen.

"Aaah!" Ness covered his eyes, crying uncontrollably. Someone kicked him, and there was a bang. When Ness opened his eyes, he saw the guy scrambling backwards, clutching his head. Paula took a few steps back.

"PK Paralysis!" yelled Ness. The omega version stunned the teen, the girl, and the guy. The brown dog was cowering under a desk. King growled and barked as the silvery aura came back. He barked again. A strange silvery mist spread through the room. Unfortunately, the mist seemed to cure the paralysis inflicted on the strangers. The blizzard raged, covering the floor and nearby people and objects with snow.

"PK Freeze!" shouted Paula. An icy blast flew forwards, meeting the PK Fire the girl had used. Then the girl glowed yellow. "PK Starstorm!" she said forcefully. "Not so fast!" As the words were spoken, there was also a flash. A teen dressed in a white karate outfit with a ponytail in the back of his head and a black belt appeared.

"Poo!" yelled Jeff.

"Indeed, it is I," said Poo.

"PSI Hypnosis!" cried Ness, aiming for the guy. He was about to throw a staple at Poo, who looked about to punch the girl before Jeff shot a bottle rocket at her legs. The teen took out a bat. Ness was bewildered. These people were similar to them. The teen's face resembled his, thought Ness. Starstorm...wasn't Poo able to use that?

"Stop!" yelled Ness. But the teen had swung for him. Ness saw stars for a moment before remembering that he had dropped the blade. The blade! He could use that for something... He rolled to the side and spotted a glint. It had fallen near Jeff. The teen swung again.

"Jeff! The sword!" yelled Ness, and Jeff tossed it up in the air. Ness did a backflip and caught it in midair, then landed on his feet and slashed at the bat the teen tried to hit him with once more. The blade stuck in the bat, which Ness tugged from the boy's hands. He was bewildered, and then he realized Ness was holding a sword. He backed off.

Everyone turned to watch as the teen said, "The other blade!" The fighting stopped. Poo and the girl were fistfighting, and they froze. Paula was about to use a PSI attack; her hand was glowing. The guy was holding a beetle, and it was waving its legs. He was about to tickle it, it seemed. Jeff was about to light a bottle rocket. King stopped mid-bark. The brown dog even stopped growling at King. The teen stared at Ness with a look on his face somewhere between awe and "Whoa, that's a shock." Ness was bewildered. The group of people and the brown dog backed away.

"So who are you?" asked Ness.

"I'm Lucas," said the teen.

"What did you mean I had 'the other blade'?"

"Well," said Lucas, "While exploring, Duster found a hilt in Osohe castle. It had a strange inscription on it, but Kumatora was able to read it." He gestured to the girl with the pink hair. "It read 'Scylla'. Then we found a scroll of paper somewhere else in the same language. It told us to' find the portal.' We searched far and wide, with no luck. Finally, I thought, 'What if the Magypsies know anything?' The Magypsies...well, it's really hard to explain what they're like. They did, however, know about a portal on a plateau nearby, and they brought us to it. So we entered it, and it brought us to...this weird little area of the world. We've been everywhere, searching for the blade. When Duster found it, you guys attacked Boney, and...What year is it?" Lucas pointed to the guy, who was, Ness assumed, Duster, and then the brown dog, whose name was Boney. Ness nodded.

"It's 1996*," he said.

"Hey...you're the people from Porky's favorite movie!" exclaimed Lucas.

"Since when has this Porky been filming us?" asked Ness, one eyebrow raised.

"Er...never mind."

Ness sighed, then introduced himself and everyone else, and told the unusual people how he, Jeff, Paula, and Poo had wound up here. The brown dog barked. The three people remained quiet. Ness suddenly realized he had never seen these people out and about, even when the teen had run off into the murky alleyways of Threed.

"Why are you hiding from everyone?" asked Ness, very seriously.

"None of your buisness," spat the girl Ness now knew was Kumatora. He scowled and turned to the guy-Duster, was it?

"So why are you hiding?" Ness repeated.

"There was an incident," he said. "The big city west of here, past the desert."

"Fourside," Ness said. "What about it?"

"Well, one of us was found trying to help a guy who had been injured, but somebody had called when they saw the guy being attacked. The police came and found Lucas trying to help the guy, and they thought he had attacked him. Kumatora and I tried to explain, and Boney barked a bit, but they just thought Lucas was guilty." Ness knew from that small battle experience Lucas was highly capable of hurting people. He also knew from (admittedly much, much more) experience that the Fourside police were not only stupid and needed things explained to them, but once they had had the situation explained were too stubborn to believe what was being said. Kumatora scowled at people who glanced at her. Paula thought she needed help. She herself was nice-maybe not as nice as she was while they were adventuring to try and stop Giygas, but still nice. Ness, on the other hand, had a head wound and was grasping a sword. Paula frowned. What had happened to the (slightly chubby) 13-year-old with the baseball bat? She was so busy looking around at her friends, wondering what had happened, and looking over the strangers that she did not know, that she did not notice the small creature that crept into the room through the hole in the wall.. Jeff, however, did. He fired a laser at it, startling the people but hitting the creature. Ness smelled burnt bananas.

"Where's that smell coming from?" he asked. King sniffed, too, and put a paw over his nose.

"Why do you shoot the stupid thing near us? Now we have to deal with that smell!" exclaimed Kumatora. Paula shook her head. The girl's rudeness would have to be dealt with. Lucas shook his head as well, and Paula was quite sure they were thinking the same thing. Ness, still holding the sword, walked over the the black creature. It was laying, shriveled up, on the ground. Despite the smell, he looked closer. It looked like a black banana with...a face? He was about to get up when an eye opened, or at least he thought it was an eye. It then opened what Ness thought was its mouth.

"Fear the Escaryuba!" it rasped loudly, before exploding in Ness's face. He coughed a few times and got up, slightly burned, then waved a glowing hand over the burns and they went away. Lucas was looking a little bewildered.

"What was that all about?" he said. Ness shrugged. It was all too confusing. Escaryuba, strange people from the future, unusual swords, something or another that was confusing. He shook his head.

"This is...a little too weird," he said. Duster nodded.

"Well, I was a little freaked out at first, too," he said.

"How did you find that hilt?"

"Snooping around Osohe Castle, as usual."

"Why do you do that?" asked Kumatora.

"To get away from Wess calling me a moron."

"I call you a moron too."

"But not as much."

Ness sighed and turned to Jeff, Dr. Andonuts, King, and Paula. Paula shrugged. King continued glowing silver. Jeff was not paying attention. Instead he was setting up some science thing. Dr. Andonuts was looking flustered. He clearly could not believe that his lab wall had been blown open. Ness had no PSI power to fix it. Suddenly a silvery craft flew in threw the large hole in the wall and landed. Ness stared, dumbstruck. Everyone froze. Then, as if it had been planned, they all turned and faced the craft at the same time, ready for a fight. The side opened and a small ramp came to the ground. Something stepped out. It was yellow.

"A banana?" asked Ness. The "banana" extended two tentacle-like protrusions into the ship and...did...something. (Ness was not sure what.) The ship suddenly flipped open to reveal a pair of lasers, which aimed at Ness and fired. He ducked as the red-hot beams shot over his head, burning a twin set of holes in his cap. My good cap, too, thought Ness. He was mad. Remembering the sword in his hand, he ran at the banana-like creature and speared it on the end of the blade. It squealed and shriveled up. Then Ness drove the blade as hard as he could into the side of the ship. It bounced off. Several more creatures armed with lasers and what looked like light swords came out. One hit Ness in the leg with a light sword, while another fired a laser at King. King was madder than Ness when the lasers burnt holes in his cap. His eyes turned silver. Paula gasped as the sky darkened. King howled. Then a bolt of silver lightning arced from a black cloud to King. He was outlined in silver before falling over, panting. The clouds faded, but King's glow did not. He rose steadily and barked.

("PK SILVER!")

Silvery energy came from seemingly nowhere and punctured huge holes in the side of the ship. Jeff winced. That would be painful to an organism, he thought as the ship began beeping. Ness took advantage of the holes and drove the blade into one. The point was sharp and punctured the floor, causing a fire. A fire? He must have hit something like the ignition...Realizing that near the ignition was the fuel and possibly oil, he dove away from the ship and at the same time felt something hot on his shoe. Ness kicked backwards and his foot collided with something; looking back, he saw it was one of the alien banana-things. It somehow fell into a hole in the ship. Something exploded.

"No!" yelled Lucas as the ship began to screech a loud warning. They ran to the safest place: the snow. Every single being in the room (even the mice) jumped out the large hole in the wall as the ship exploded. For the second time that day, people at Snow Wood Boarding School felt a tremor, and some looking out the window saw what looked like an explosion in the distance.

"What could that BE?" said Maxwell. Tony screamed like a little girl when he saw the explosion.

"Jeff!" he squealed. That was Dr. Andonuts's lab-where Jeff lived! Meanwhile, Ness managed to push himself up on his hands. He brushed snow off of his face and sneezed the rest out of his nose. Next to get up was Boney. He had landed lightly, so he didn't have much to worry about in the way of snow in the face. Then rose Lucas, then Jeff. Paula was the last to rise. Something had hit her midair, and thrown her forcefully to the ground, and that something was revealed as two banana-things jumped off of her and growled something. Ness's foot shot out and he kicked one. Paula managed to roll and hit one over the head. It crumpled, and she tossed it away. It left a sticky residue on the pan. Just as Ness was about to examine the one that he kicked, which was more likely to be alive, it jumped up and sprung for his face. The creature latched onto Ness's cheek, and he fell over backwards. It was trying to suck his flesh away...his vision was fading...

"Where am I?" said Ness, looking up to see a smiling sunflower.

"Not here again..." He groaned loudly. It was Magicant. The strange land inside of his head featured some very bizzare things. Then he remembered that Magicant had been destroyed when Ness defeated the evil force inside of his head that created the evil side of the land. Without both sides to balance each other out, the world collapsed and Ness was awoken. It was a shock to see that smiling sunflower.

"Hello," it said. This was not Magicant. The sunflowers had not talked. And there was no cheesy theme park music playing. Ness repeated his question.

"Where am I?"

"You are in Tnacigam. This a place where strange things come together."

"Why am I here?"

"You are strange," it said.

"No, I'm not, actually. Tell me why I'm here."

"I just told you. You are strange. Have you ever thought of PSI as a common ability?"

Ness paused. "No..." he said.

"You have an uncommon ability. That is what makes you strange." It then smiled and bobbed around a bit.

"Can you tell me how I got here?"

"Do you not remember the creature latching onto your flesh and attempting to consume it?"

"I remember that part."

"Strange things, when in extreme pain, come here. It spares them."

"Define 'strange.'"

"Strange is PSI, ghosts, things that are artificial but alive, and many other things, mostly those considered strange by other strange things without realizing they themselves are considered strange."

"Can you use some synonyms for 'strange?' It's getting repetetive and making the author seem like a dope for using the same words."

"It is too late for me to use synonyms. Farewell," it said bluntly, and Ness's vision faded again.

"I swear to God, if I go to Tnacigam-2, I'm going to have a seizure or something from the cuteness." Ness laughed mentally when he realized that cuteness contained his name. Then he realized he had never noticed that a lot of words contained his name, and thought himself an eejit.

CRASH!

Ness gasped and felt wet, cold air fill his lungs. He went into a fit of coughing before realizing that Paula, Jeff and Lucas were looking over him, looks of concern on their faces. He felt something lick his face and heard a whimper and Duster's voice. Ness sat up, feeling at the same time an excruciating pain on his cheek. He looked at Paula and Jeff.

"What happened?" he asked.

"The thing...sort of...removed...a small part of your face," said Jeff. Ness shuddered, imagining it.

"I used PSI Lifeup," said Poo, appearing suddenly, "but it didn't seem to do too much. At least your healing will be faster."

"Are you leaving, Poo?" asked Paula.

"How did you know?" Paula tapped her head. Poo nodded. "Well, I have to go. I am told that I must continue my studies and training, so I do." He moved away. Ness looked over at the pink-haired girl, whatever her name was. He did not care. She had her back to him.

"Kumatora, he's really hurt!" said Duster.

"Why should I care?" Kumatora said.

"Because we share a common goal: Stopping evil. They're after the blade stuff too!"

"I don't care."

"Maybe we should go," said Ness, fearing that this might escalate into an argument, and moved around the side of the lab to a deep snowdrift. Lucas, Paula, Jeff, and the two dogs followed. They laid in the snowdrift, attempting to block the shouts coming from the front of the lab. Suddenly, Ness saw a hand in the snow. "Don't panic, but I think we're near a dead body," he said.

"What?" said Paula nervously. The snowy wall separating her and Ness vanished.

"Right there," he said, edging away from the hand and pointing. Indeed, there was a hand. 


	5. Death in The Snow

Chapter 5: Death in The Snow

"What's going on here?" whispered Paula. "I can stand beating cutesy things to death, I can stand destroying evil machines, I can stand piles of puke, zapping eels, explosions, insects, and lots of other things, but I can't stand dead bodies!" She began to shake uncontrollably. Jeff crawled over to them, and Ness felt two bundles of fur nearby. Paula grabbed his hand as the hand in the snow moved, but it was only a lemming-like creature nearby in the snow brushing against it.

"I think we should find out who-or what-it is," stated Ness. He rose, taking Paula and the brown dog with him. (Boney had been laying on his arm) King, Lucas, and Jeff stood up around the same time.

"PK Fire!" said Paula quietly. The snow melted away, revealing a body attached to the arm. Ness gasped; images flashed through his mind at the sight of the body.

"Richard Pronch..." he said.

"What?" said Jeff.

"Richard Pronch!" Ness shook his head as Jeff frowned. "The one who slashed King and who I dueled."

("That evil...") muttered King. Ness ignored him.

"What could do this? What killed him and buried him in snow? What the hell did this!" he exclaimed. Paula was still holding his hand, and she realized this as she reached up to point. Ness also realized it, but soon forgot as he saw a blackish-yellow spatter in the snow where Paula had been reaching up to point. "Is that blood?"

"I think," said Jeff. "But it's definitely not human."

"If it was human, it'd have to be genetically modified," said Ness.

("It isn't his,") said the brown dog. ("In case you haven't realized, you're almost standing in bloody snow.") They stepped back in disgust, away from the red snow.

"I think I know," whispered Paula. "Escaryuba. It's Escaryuba blood!" She then proceeded to start laughing hysterically. Ness, who considered it improper to hit a girl, defied that little rule now and then. This was a now.

"Paula!" he scolded sharply, hitting her in the arm. She snapped back to sanity.

"Ow! That hurt!" she said. "But thanks for that." Jeff was examining the blood.

"It has the consistency of banana when you leave it out in the sun..." he said, scribbling the same words on a notepad. Just then, something clicked in Ness's mind.

"Escaryuba! That's what that banana-creature said to fear before it blew up in Ness's face!" Lucas exclaimed, surprising the group. He was so quiet they had forgotten about him.

"Es...cary...uba," noted Jeff. Then he looked around. "Hey...where's my dad?" Ness frowned.

"I don't know...let's-" He never finished the sentence, as someone began calling.

"Hey! Where'd you go?" It was Duster. Ness suddenly realized his cheek had been ripped open. He felt it. It was still pretty disgusting, and painful now that it had been disturbed.

"We're over here!" called Jeff. Duster came into view as they went around the corner. Kumatora looked upset.

"Kumatora," said Lucas quietly, moving over to her. They spoke for a minute, then joined the rest of the group.

"You think you're upset?" said Ness angrily. "We just found a dead body. There was blood everywhere." Paula shuddered and huddled up to him. King whimpered and brushed against Kumatora by accident as he walked on the inside of the small circle of people. She looked angry for a moment, then seemed to change her mind. She petted him for a minute, during which King looked suspicious, but was grateful for some comfort. Suddenly Jeff remembered something.

"Where's my dad?" he said. Ness jumped up and looked around wildly. They were near Stonehenge, which was...a favorite hangout of Bubble Monkey!

"Bubble Monkey!" Ness called, alarming everyone. Soon, the monkey came out of the nearby cave.

("Yeah?") he said.

"We need to find Jeff's dad!"

("I think I can help. My friend, a moose, knows a lot about what goes on around here. Wait here!") He ran into the forest nearby, and moments later emerged with a moose.

Without waiting for a greeting, Ness asked the question. "Have you seen a middle-aged man, glasses, lab coat?"

("He went into the forest. Flying, it seems,") replied the moose.

"Oh, no..." said Jeff.

"What?" said Lucas, noticing.

"It's just that...flying...means...he got hit by the explosion." Ness realized that this was true. Dr. Andonuts had been too late to jump from the side of the lab and had probably gotten caught in the explosion, at least partially. Nobody else realized that, apparently, so Ness filled them in.

"Terrible," said Duster, shaking his head. Ness and Jeff had already charged into the forest.

"Uh-oh..." said Jeff. They both saw something laying in the snow. It was white-but not as white as the snow. Jeff ran over to it and rolled it over.

"Dr. Andonuts!" breathed Ness. Jeff placed two fingers lightly on the right side of Dr. Andonuts's neck.

"No pulse," said Jeff without emotion. His voice sounded as if an Escaryuba had bitten it and drained it of its blood-in this case, emotion.

"Are you sure you're taking his pulse properly?" asked Paula, appearing behind them. Following her was Boney.

"Yes," said Jeff. Ness noticed the lack of people behind Paula.

"Where is everyone?"

"Duster, Lucas, and that girl took King into a more dangerous section of the forest-where the aliens were coming from when Giygas was still the main troublemaker around here. They thought he had better chances of getting around than they did, since he has white and light gray fur. Plus, you saw what he did to that spaceship."

"I'll kill him!" rasped Jeff, startling Paula, Boney, and Ness. "I will! He made that spaceship explode! That spaceship...it..." He trailed off. Ness knew he was referring to King, but before he could try to persuade Jeff not to kill King he noticed Jeff's eyes tearing up. "I can't. I just can't. I'm not a violent person. I can't kill him...it's just..."

Suddenly there was a violent trembling nearby. Ness saw flashes. "My God! Look at that monster!" he said, seeing a silhouette. He also saw those of a dog and three people. "Pardon me," he said to the other three, and charged off through the forest. He ignored the trees and the needle-like plants and ran until he saw the monster's hide ten feet in front of him. "PK Rockin'!" The unusual attack that followed could be described like this:

As usual, light slashed back and forth, dazing and injuring the monster. Next, there were some bursts of energy before something strange happened. The air exploded and then collapsed inwardly, exploding once more and forming sort of a black hole which absorbed all nearby light and PSI. Then it vanished before there was an incredible thundering and flashing and burst of psychic energy, and all that the three in the forest with Dr. Andonuts saw was a blinding light, followed by a terrible roar and thundering.

"That was...terrifying," said Kumatora, blinking rapidly to clear her eyes of the flash. Duster, Lucas, and King were doing the same. Ness was slumped unconscious on the forest floor. They were all burnt, and were covered in ash on whatever side had faced the monster. Just then they heard sticks cracking and saw Boney standing behind them.

("You got here fast. What's the deal?") said King.

("We're not sure if that guy-") said Boney.

("Dr. Andonuts.")

("We're not sure if Dr. Andonuts is alive or not. Blondie and Glasses are with him. And I saw Red Hat there go charging off into the forest and then there was a lot of light and roaring, and I...it's really hard to explain the sensation I got from that roar...")

("It's fine. I was here. I got a weird feeling, too.") King then went over to Ness and sniffed him. Ness came back to consciousness as the wet nose prodded him.

"Wuzzah?" he said. "What...what happened?" As he spoke, Jeff and Paula came around the corner, breathless. But before they even had time to speak, Duster frowned and spoke.

"What's that?" he said, bending down and examining a piece of paper on the snowy forest floor.

"It's a piece of paper. What it's doing here beats me..." said Lucas.

"There's writing on it..."

"Well, read it!"

"'That was a warning.'"

"You never-"

"That's what the paper says."

"Are you talking about the monster?" said Paula. Meanwhile, King dug around in the snow nearby, smelling something similar to smoke and blood. First, he dug near a tree. Then he dug in a small clearing. As he dug in the clearing, his paws hit metal and he kept digging, trying to find out what the thing was. Finally, he barked as a device looking like a metal platform was exposed. Kumatora, not distracted by the paper, walked over.

"What did you find?" she said as she approached him.

("Dunno,") replied King, prodding the thing with his paw.

"Looks like one of those things the Pigmasks used to use to create their mechanical creatures. But that thing looked organic..."

("Since when have organic things exploded?")

"...Well..."

("Precisely. I think it was a machine.") King also smelled blood. The smoky smell had vanished, but the blood scent had not. However, it was nearby. ("Hey...can you use that fire thing on this patch of snow?") he asked.

"Why?"

("There may be something under here.") Kumatora nodded and blasted the snow with PK Fire. When the steam cleared, there was...nothing. ("Impossible!") King jumped into the small pit created by the PK Fire and looked around. That's when he spotted the fingers. Two fingers were poking out of the snow. ("Could that be...?")

("Aye, 'tis,") Boney said from behind him. ("Fingers.") The other dog jumped down and pulled on the fingers. They popped out of the snow, not attached to an arm. The dogs jumped back in horror, but Kumatora used PK Fire near them and revealed...

"Another one!" groaned Paula. "This is disgusting." She shielded her eyes and Ness and Jeff exchanged looks. Meanwhile, Duster and Lucas stared in shock as the dogs and Kumatora joined the group. Bodies were popping up everywhere.

"I think they killed him because he stumbled on their machine thing," said Ness.

"But what about that Pronch guy?" asked Lucas.

"He...may have been...an impostor..." Ness responded, thinking. "They wouldn't kill their own kind in disguise. The impostor must've been very handy. I'm not saying it's fact, but it's a logical theory."

"I've got a bigger concern," said Jeff, looking up at the horizon. "Did anyone ever pick up that blade back there?"

"No," responded Duster, but as he spoke he saw what Jeff was looking at. He gasped, took a few steps back, and pointed.

A large spaceship was flying towards the remains of Dr. Andonuts's lab, and the people and dogs in the snowy forest were quite sure it did not contain anything friendly.

* * *

This wasn't a very long chapter. I'm not planning to drag out the next chapter either. There might be a pairing. ⌐_⌐


	6. City Lights

**A/N:** This is a bit of a long chapter, but there's a fight.

* * *

Chapter 6: City Lights

With a loud noise, the ship flew overhead. As it did, it fired multiple rays of energy at the ground around the group. Where the rays hit the ground, hands burst upwards through the earth and assisted bodies in exiting the dirt and snow. Several live beasts also came in from the nearby trees.

"We can handle this," said Ness, waving a hand.

"No, we can't, actually," said Jeff, pointing. Everyone gasped in horror. Three-legged black creatures-many, many more than in the jungle-were approaching. Ness now believed them to be Escaryuba put on the Earth and, exposed for a long period of time, had turned rotten and lost their sentience, becoming something like feral rotten bananas.

"Alright...Paula...take my hand. Jeff, take my other hand. King, brown dog, make sure at least one person is touching you. Lucas, take Paula's hand, Kumatora, take Jeff's, King, stand near Lucas, Lucas, touch King, Kumatora, touch Brownie-"

("Boney.")

"-touch Boney...wait, Duster, swap with Boney. King, Boney, make sure you're in contact with one another," ordered Ness. Once they were all in place-a process taking remarkably little time, probably due to the mortal danger they were in-Ness looked up.

"PSI Teleport !"

In a whirlwind of energy and a flash, the eight of them were gone.

"Oof!"

Ness landed roughly on the pavement. It was nighttime in Fourside, and the building lights were all on. People bustled around happily, laughing, talking, gossiping, and just sitting around at tables outside of restaraunts. He himself laughed, seeing the fun and happiness of it.

"We're in Fourside? Why Fourside?" asked Paula, casting a nervous look at the tunnel in the distance.

"First place I thought of. No zombies or Escaryuba, guaranteed," replied Ness. The people he was with seemed to calm down a little.

"Um...do you have the time?" Lucas had spoken to a passing man.

"Military or regular?"

"Er...regular."

"It is 11:21 PM."

"This city's awfully busy," muttered Duster, looking around. "We never have things like this in the Nowhere Islands."

"That's what we get for living in a rural village. Technology just changed the look of Tazmily too much for me. I...I don't like what it did," said Lucas, a faraway look on his face.

"I don't like it either," said Kumatora, patting Lucas on the shoulder after a sharp glance from Duster. Ness assumed Duster had said something while they had argued in Winters that had put her under some kind of control. Whatever the case, he was clearly trying to make her a more caring person. Lucas looked up at Kumatora, a little confused, but Ness once again saw Duster shoot a glance at someone-this time, Lucas. Lucas spotted him and understanding dawned in his eyes. Suddenly Jeff elbowed Ness and nodded towards a large building nearby.

"Department store," he said.

"What about-" began Ness, but he was interrumpted by something black shooting out of the night and grazing his arm with its fangs. ...Fangs? Small black thing like a spider?

"Banana-alien!" spat Jeff, and he whipped out his Death Ray and blasted it with a beam of energy. It collapsed into oblivion, a burst of slime erupting from the collapsing form.

"Seriously, Jeff," Paula said, her voice a bit shaky. "I'm glad you don't use that on normal creatures, at least on that setting." Jeff pressed a button on the side. It had been set to create a point small in mass, but extremely high in density inside of the creature or building. This had an immense gravitational pull and caused the target to collapse inwardly, spraying bodily fluids as they were sucked into...well, oblivion.

"An Escaryuba?" said Ness. Then a thought crossed his mind. "I have a feeling we're going to go on another adventure. I mean, last time zombies and aliens started attacking people, we had an adventure. What's stopping us now? Maybe...we should stock up on supplies." Ness started to walk towards the store.

"I was going to mention how Paula had vanished in there, but...okay," said Jeff, following him. The others saw them leaving.

"Where are you going?" shouted Lucas.

"Store. You guys should come too." They talked among themselves for a moment, then followed.

The store still had a creepy air to it despite the happy people. Perhaps it was because Paula had vanished there.

"This is scary to me," muttered Paula, looking around warily. Ness, knowing it might be a good idea to keep aliens from running off with her again, put his hand in hers. Paula turned a little red and looked at him, but Ness explained.

"I think it might be a good idea to keep you from getting kidnapped by aliens-the Escaryuba are more dangerous than Starmen." Ness motioned to his cheek, which was still mangled. Paula grimaced, but kept her eyes ahead of her. Jeff stayed nearby, and so did King. (Ness had told King everything about his adventure to defeat Giygas, and King, knowing this place from the story, kept watch.)

("Isn't this a bad idea?") he asked.

"I'm not sure. We need supplies, but I don't think the Escaryuba would do what the aliens did last time," Jeff said. He had recieved a psychic message from Paula and clearly was able to use telepathy to some degree, but the only thing he could really do was hear animals speak and recieve messages.

"Well, let's actually get somewhere and go up this escalator instead of standing around all night," said Ness, beginning to move towards the escalator. As he did so, the lights went off. "You had to speak, didn't you, Jeff?"

"Sorry," he said, backing into a wall along with King. Ness and Paula did the same. They huddled together, watching in the dark. Ness gripped Paula's hand tightly, and thought it might be a good idea to grab Jeff's arm, too. Jeff looked bewildered as Ness grabbed his forearm, but Ness whispered an explanation and nodded at Paula's hand. Jeff nodded. Just then, a yell rang through the silence and a flash cut through the darkness. People screamed at the yell, and then as a loud bang shot through the store.

"The power's back on!" said someone, looking up. The lights and things were indeed turning on again. Ness hugged Paula and King in relief and sheer joy that nobody had gone missing. At least that's what he thought, until he saw Kumatora, Duster and Boney with upset expressions on their faces.

"What?" said Paula kindly.

"It's...it's...Lucas," said Duster.

"Something terrible's happened," said Kumatora. She seemed upset, too. She pointed to a burnt spot and a splatter of yellowish liquid on the floor. Ness squirmed, but Boney answered him.

("It's alien slime. I've examined it,") he said telepathically.

"There's more over there...and over there...and..." said Paula.

"It's a trail..." said Duster. "We can follow it!"

("It heads out of the store, but...we can follow it. Boney and I will sniff it out in the dark,") King told them.

"Brilliant!" said Ness. They followed the dogs as they sniffed out the trail. Along the way, people were unconscious. They clearly had not seen Lucas or the alien.

"...The hotel?" said Kumatora, confused. They had reached the end of the trail.

"Let's go in, then," said Duster. They went inside the hotel, where the secretary was slumped unconscious in her chair.

"They didn't want anyone to see. How did the alien manage to do this?" wondered Ness.

("Probably with PSI,") said King. He sniffed out one last bit of slime outside a door and they opened it.

"Aah!" said Kumatora. A large Escaruba with an evil grin on its face was standing there.

"I see you found me," it said. Ness noticed that Lucas was bound in ropes nearby. He was wide-eyed and struggling, but unable to even use PSI due to a machine nearby that was sapping a blue energy from him every so often.

"Let him go!" shouted Ness.

"You'll need something of value...how about...your life?"

"Only if you kill me."

The Escaryuba extended a tentacle and picked up Ness, then threw him across the room. Ness landed hard and skidded across the floor, coming to a stop as he hit the wall. The alien cackled evilly.

"Hey, banana-brain!"

It was Duster, who had whipped out a bunch of oversized staples. Boney cocked his head and whimpered in confusion.

"You remember these, Boney. We used them all through our adventure, to climb walls and pin fat guys in pig suits as well as biomechanical horrors, among other things. Remember?" Duster said quickly. Boney nodded. Duster threw the staples hard enough to pin the banana-alien to the wall. It wriggled for a moment before speaking.

"This is between Red Cap and I!" it rasped before sinking to the floor and sliding on its own goo away from the staples. It stood up, but Ness did so also.

"We know Lucas better!" shouted Duster.

"Yeah!" said Kumatora. "PK Fire!" Unexpectedly, Ness came forwards and blocked it with a PSI Shield.

"He's right. It's between us. I started it. I'll finish it...PK Rockin'!" Light erupted around them all and the usual PK Rockin' attack followed. It did not have the strange vortex that had absorbed light and energy, and which had then exploded violently, blasting out what it had absorbed in one large burst of energy. The Escaryuba was thrown into the wall, making a crack in it before sliding downwards and slumping on the floor.

"Is it dead?" said Paula cautiously.

"Oh, look. A convenient switch," said the Escaryuba from the floor, ignoring Paula. "I think I'll just press it." It did so.

"Not again," muttered Jeff.. Nobody heard him. They were all too busy falling into a pit created beneath the hotel.

"Oof!"

A bed fell from the room along with a chair (both of which the Escaryuba had not intended to fall) and a group of people and two dogs. They heard the alien cackling above them and saw the floor close again, and it was dark.

"It's really dark down here," said Jeff.

"That can be fixed," said Kumatora. They saw a fire erupt into being on the ground for a moment and in its light saw Kumatora walk over to the bed and light a post on fire. Then she broke it off and jammed it into the dirt, lighting the whole pit. Now that they could all see, it was seen that grass grew in some places, but mostly it was empty and dank down in the pit.

"What will we do?" said Paula. Ness looked around.

"We survive."

("Or we could just walk out this...") began King. Duster tried to open it, and then tried to kick it apart. Ness followed suit, to no avail. It would not budge.

"...unmoving, locked steel door." Jeff shook his head. "Try PSI."

"PK Fire!" said Paula forcefully. Flames shot towards the door, but stopped moving a few feet from it.

"A psychic shield...an unbreakable door...and no resources or food whatsoever. This trap is quite well set up. Unfortunately, we're the ones in it," said Ness.

"Agreed," sighed Kumatora, sitting on the ground. King howled loudly, emitting a bright silver energy as he did so. It soared upwards and revealed...

"Bats," gaped Jeff. He was scared of bats. The energy also blasted a hole in the ceiling (which was also the hotel floor). The bats, sensing night air streaming from the open window far above, flew squeaking out of the hole. The group heard yelling, and something like a muffled scream.

("Lucas!") Boney yelped in despair. Lucas was his best friend. The brown dog paced around and dropped himself onto the floor with a dull thud. Ness, meanwhile, had gotten an idea from seeing the hole in the ceiling. It was like a miniature tunnel going upwards. A tunnel...

"PK Blast!" he said. A minor explosion threw dirt from the wall, creating a large hole. He repeated this several times until he had a tunnel. It was small, but the others noticed it. The dogs understood at once, but it took Duster and Kumatora longer to figure it out. Paula and Jeff were confused for a moment, but, knowing Ness, realized what he was doing.

"You intend to tunnel out of here?" said Paula, raising an eyebrow.

"You don't even know the distances and proper measurements!" exclaimed Jeff.

"When did you learn this PK Blast, anyway? It was never explained to anyone who might be reading this in case it's ever written down," asked Paula.

"I needed something forceful to push things and throw things out of my hands," replied Ness. "I kinda just focused on it for a bit, and...I mean, that's what happened when we fought enough enemies back in Giygas-fighting times. We went into a brief trance and learned how to do something."

"That's both a major cop-out and a decent explanation at the same time," Jeff told him. "It makes sense for Giygas-fighting times (that seems so long ago, doesn't it?), but now...I don't think PK Blast even existed."

"I made it up. Besides, since when were you so educated in PSI?"

"Major cop-out," sighed Paula, laughing and shaking her head.

"Shut up!" Ness's expression was somewhere between laughter and a scowl. Paula laughed. Ness ignored his two friends and blasted away some more dirt. Finally...

"PK Blast!" Nothing happened. "I'm out of energy," sighed Ness, collapsing on the ground. Getting an idea, he took the sword parts out of his backpack and stuck them together. Maybe it could be used as a shovel. There was an immense burst of energy that illuminated the whole cave. In that split second, King spotted something. A spider. No...spiders, and many of them at that.

King backed away, but the spiders suddenly changed course and came right at him. ("Help!") he howled, racing towards Paula and Jeff. Kumatora squinted, attempting to see the spiders. Then they crawled near the torch. A stray bit of peeling wood fell off and incinerated nearby spiders, creating a small explosion. Kumatora, as a young girl, had shot PK Fire at the large spiders in Osohe Castle. She knew that they burnt.

"It's no big deal. Some bug must have hopped off your fur or something, and..." Kumatora trailed off as large arachnids began to descend from the ceiling. They crawled at the people and dogs. Boney, in a mad attempt to kill them all, had clumped dirt on his feet and was charging around and barking loudly. Soon, his feet were coated in spiders. They crawled up his legs and forced Paula to use PSI to remove them.

"Everyone step back!" Kumatora commanded. The others obeyed her and she summoned all her remaining PSI energy.

Ness, meanwhile, was being dragged around by something invisible. The sword was in his hand, and it was glowing as it-not Ness-slashed itself expertly through the air. Ness attempted to mimic its motions, hoping that he would stop being dragged around, and the sword blasted an immense pulse of energy, throwing Ness backwards into an inferno made up of burning spiders. There was nothing they could do to save him. But, miraculously, he didn't need saving. The sword suddenly thrust upwards and Ness flew in a loop, colliding with the dirt wall. Then he fell, the sword clattering to the ground nearby. It thrust itself into his hand.

"Aah!" he screamed. "Stop it!" The sword obeyed at once. "Who are you? What are you! Why are you doing this!" The sword's tip began to glow. It wrote words in the air, but before it had finished an extremely large spider dropped from the sky and pinned it to the ground, the words dissipating as the oversized arachnid fell through them. Ness whipped out his bat and bashed its head in, spraying him with spider blood. The sword spun rapidly as more spiders dropped from the ceiling. They crawled towards it, hissing with eyes aglow, but the sword stopped abruptly, pointing towards the nearest arachnid like a compass needle.

It shot forwards and skewed the spider.

The arachnid was thrown into the seething mass of legs, hissing, and hair, but more came. The sword fought by itself, but they kept coming. In their awe, the crowd forgot to fight the beasts and were shocked into moving by dead spiders smashing into the wall.

A man walking along the pavement heard the crashes and felt the ground vibrating, and he heard shouting.

"Do you hear that?" he asked a passing woman.

"Hear what?"

"Listen."

They both paused. The quaking continued. Suddenly, light erupted from the crack in the pavement nearby, and cement was thrown sky-high as spiders, dead and alive, flew threw the air. The sword, spinning and glowing, shot out of the hole after them. Chunks of dirt whistled past the ears of the people, and they covered their heads to avoid having them taken off. As if the shock of a self-propelled sword and giants spiders exploding out of the pavement weren't enough, however, a dog shot out of the hole, aglow with silver energy and growling. It landed on the street and launched itself at the spiders.

"King!" yelled Ness from the wall. He was webbed to it, along with Paula. Spiders crowded around them. Kumatora, Duster, Jeff, and Boney were fighting for their lives. Ness felt pinpricks on his arms-tiny spiders, biting him. He looked over at Paula. She looked back at him. The situation was hopeless for both of them. After the tremendous explosion caused by King erupting in silver energy, he had joined the battle outside.

"PK Fire!"

Another inferno raged through the underground chamber. The enormous spiders had grabbed Ness and Paula and webbed them to the wall before they could act, and they could do nothing as their friends were hidden behind a wall of flame. Just then a wave of crackling energy swept through the cave, causing the spiders biting Ness to fall to the ground, helpless.

"What was that!" It was Duster. Ness did not hear him, he was too busy looking at the larger spiders that had descended around him.

"Well," one hissed. Beside him, Paula blinked in surprise.

"It spoke," she whispered. "No telekinesis." Ness nodded the best he could; the web was making it difficult to move. Then he heard barking and a whirring noise, and several dead spiders fell into the pit. A glowing silver dog streaked into the chamber and cut a straight line through the spiders. They began to shrink back in fear of the silver bolt of death.

"Your dog is of no concern to us. He cannot reach us here." As the mandibles parted and the beastly arachnid spoke, it extended a leg and swished it around in the air. A forcefield became evident as the air distorted around the hairy leg.

"Ness! Paula!" Ness heard Kumatora's shout, but he knew that she could not save him.

"Don't worry about me!" he yelled back.

"The only place you can get through is up here." The spider hissed in amusement as it pointed upwards, looking at its friend before continuing. "But since you're stuck, that won't happen." It went back up to the ceiling on a dragline and crawled to the hole to terrorize Fourside.

("I'll save you!") King barked, bolting across the pit for the tenth time and leaping-no, flying-at the two trapped humans. There was a flash and the silver energy enveloping King shot across the pit, blasting spiders back. The arachnids kept coming, however, and as King regained his silvery aura Paula could see in his eyes that he knew it was hopeless.

"The best thing to do," she whispered to the dog, "is to escape and clog this place up. They won't trouble us then."

("But what about you two?") he whimpered. ("You'll be stuck.")

Paula frowned, but a smile grew on Ness's face.

"I've got a plan. Just make sure everyone gets out of here safely." King nodded sadly and raced away, generating silver energy to lift their friends into the air.

"So what's this plan of yours?" asked Paula.

"Can you burn this web?"

"If I can angle my hand properly." She seemed to be having difficulty moving her wrist, but she finally said "PK Fire!" The web burnt around Ness, and he wailed for a moment, but the web around him soon burned away, and he dropped to the bottom.

Bouncing on the forcefield, he pointed his own hand at Paula. "PSI Magnet," he said in a deep voice. Paula realized what he was going to do as 8 globules of PSI energy flew from her to Ness.

"PSI Teleport !"

They vanished into thin air as spiders began to fill the unoccupied space.

"Where's Lucas now?" Duster wondered aloud, peering into the hotel window and seeing nothing but a desk and a chair.

"Dunno," replied Kumatora. "I guess the alien must have taken him." Boney whimpered and lay down on the street where it wasn't cluttered with cement and dirt particles.

("But I do,") replied King. The silver aura had faded, and he was back to normal.

"You do?" asked Jeff.

("Follow me,") said King. ("I've got an idea as to where it might have go-")

Just then, there was a shout from nearby. The five of them rushed towards the sound, which was revealed to be from the top of...

"The Monotolli Building?" said Jeff in confusion.

"Hey!" They heard Ness's voice and looked up. He was standing on the helicopter platform.

"How did you get up there!" screamed Jeff, hoping they would hear him. "I thought it was locked or something!"

"Come up here and I'll explain!"

("'No dogs allowed,'") read King, seeing the sign on the door. Then he read the sign below it. ("'Monotolli does not accept visitors. No matter how much you disagree with his re-election, please do not ask to go to his office.' Well, I've got a plan to get past both of these.")

Kumatora walked into the lobby. She spotted a lady next to the elevator.

"Hello." Kumatora greeted the woman and asked to be taken to the floor with the helicopter platform.

"You mean Monotolli's office?"

Jeff, who was listening to the conversation from outside, was surprised. He walked into the lobby.

"I thought Monotolli was out of office," he said to the elevator operator. Kumatora turned around and looked at him, then back at the lady.

"Yes, but the next person was so terrible the people of Fourside re-elected Monotolli in an emergency election."

"That doesn't sound very realistic."

"But it happened."

"Can we just go to the office?" Kumatora asked, exasperated.

"I've met him," Jeff added as Duster (who was wearing dark glasses) and Boney walked into the door.

"No dogs allowed," said the receptionist briskly.

"This is my Seeing Eye dog," said Duster, motioning to Boney. As he spoke, a white and silver cat stalked through the door. Its eyes seemed to be glowing faintly.

("King!") yelped Boney in surprise. ("How did you...?")

("I found that sword, and...well...I picked it up in my jaws because I wanted to give it to Ness. There was a flash and I heard a voice in my head...'You will appear as a cat, true to your plan, until you are safe and nobody will care that you are a dog.' I...I put it in the bushes outside. I don't really understand what happened. All I know is that...that there's something wrong with the sword.") He shifted nervously from paw to paw and mewed softly. Boney rolled over on the ground, yelping in short, excited bursts-laughter.

("Ha ha ha! Did you...did you...did you just meow! That's hilarious!") He kept laughing.

("Shut up!") King looked embarassed.

"Sir...is your...what's going on?" stuttered the woman at the elevator.

"It's a long story. Can we just go up?" said Kumatora.

"I've met Monotolli," Jeff repeated.

"Um...sure." She opened the door and gasped as she cast a confused glance at the group. "You!" she said, pointing at Jeff. "You were with that boy who kept staring at my hips! You might do it too! Get out of the elevator!" Jeff obeyed, cursing the woman silently. Ness had not been staring at her hips. Unbeknownst to anyone but him, Ness, and Paula, there was a force called programming that balanced things in the universe. When Ness stepped into the elevator, Paula followed. The two PSI-wielders in a small space with two non-PSI-wielders, coupled with Paula's mild claustrophobia, had created a disturbance in the programming that had made it look like Ness was staring at the woman's hips when he was really speaking to Jeff and Paula.

"Looks like rain."

"It also looks like it's 3 A.M."

"Do you people ever sleep?" asked Jeff.

"Yes. We just drink a lot of coffee. Our kids are up during the day, so we get things done in the night.

"What about people who don't have kids?"

"They work."

"All day?"

"From eight to ten, with three hour-long breaks.

"11 hours of work sounds like a lot."

"It is."

As the people spoke with Jeff, Duster and Kumatora walked down the hall. With them was Boney. King was still at the other end of the hall, fading back into a dog. They opened a door at the end of the passage and found themselves in a room.

" Hola! ¿Como estas?" said the small robot they encountered.

"What?" said Duster.

" Como te llamas? Me llamo Roberto Robot."

"Who came up with that name?" muttered Kumatora.

"Quien ponió la pizza en la mesa? Yo matará el hombre que hizó este!"

"Sounds angry," remarked Kumatora.

"MATO!"

"Definitely angry," she said. The robot drew out a rotating saw blade made of titanium.

("PK Silver!") barked King, his fur bristling as he charged up the hall.. Instead of silver energy puncturing the target, like when King had used it on the spacecraft, energy collected around the dog and as he opened his mouth to bark it gathered into a dense ball. He crashed through the door.

The robot drew closer to Duster, Boney and Kumatora. They backed away, not hearing the crash in their fear. As the trio prepared to make a run for it, a powerful beam of light smashed into the robot and a hole in its shape was thrown through several walls. Ness's head appeared in one, then Paula's. The group walked through the doors to meet them.

"Alright. Sounds plausible," said Ness drowsily as he walked over to the door in the far wall. The passageway it concealed led to the door leading outside to the platform.

"But why did you teleport up here?"

"It seemed safe enough. No enemies." He sounded quite sleepy.

"Er...maybe you should get some sleep," said Jeff uncertainly.

"Fine, fine, I'll get somuzzah...f...in...e...sleep...zzz..." Ness collapsed on the floor.

"How did he do that?" said Paula, backing away from the now-snoring Ness.

Jeff went through the door. He followed the passage and went out onto the helicopter platform.

"Worse...how did they do this?" he said, sounding shocked. Kumatora and Boney went out to check, followed by Paula, Duster, and King.

"Seems normal to me," said Kumatora. "Are you sure you aren't hallucinating?"

"No," said Jeff. "Look over there." He walked to the far right and pointed downwards, at the park.

"Oh..." gasped Paula.

"My..." whispered Duster.

("God...") whimpered King.

The park was ravaged. Scraps of metal, trash, stone, and all sorts of other things were strewn about. At the heart of it all was a group of black creatures and several large, hairy spiders. A yellow creature wielded a laser beam, which was probably responsible for the fire that was racing across the heap of junk.

One spider looked up and saw Jeff.

"There's one of the people!" it said eagerly, pointing.

"Kill him and anyone with him," rasped the yellow creature, seeing Jeff as well.

"Don't leave any survivors. Ravage the city. Kill everyone."

* * *

Shocker! Aah! Kill! Destroy! AAAAAAH!

Well, you get the point. Now what will happen?

As for that pairing, I forgot until I decided to write that last bit. Saving that for chapter seven, maybe.

And my Spanish is a little rusty, mind. Don't flame.

Remember to write a review if you like the story! Any review is appreciated...except flames.


	7. Mysterious

Chapter 7: Mysterious

Sorry if my writing style has been off. This chapter is strange and it might make you think, "Wow, this story is becoming weird." I'm a bit weird to know if you know me in person anyway, and my sense of humor is a little...unusual. (Klondike bars, for example.) I DO NOT OWN KLONDIKE BARS. (Or any other product manufactured by the company. Or anything in this story besides the Escaryuba.)

You should have played Earthbound and Mother 3 to understand who the characters are, in case you haven't already figured that out. I DO NOT OWN EARTHBOUND OR MOTHER 3. (If I did, I would program a "what-happened-afterwards" of Earthbound and/or Mother 3. No, it wouldn't be this.) AND I DON'T OWN MEWTWO because there's a reference made at some point.

If you read my note at the end of Ch. 6, you know what's coming. Feel free to skip over it. I'm not the person who types a big long paragraph about how so-and-so loves so-and-so-2 so much that they could remain like that forever. This is done after making up a terrible storyline with bad writing. (No specific people there...not trying to offend anyone. Sorry if I did.) I think that goes a bit overboard, unless it was a strictly romance story.

I also forgot to mention that there are two types of PSI Magnet. P-Magnet absorbs PSI energy, M-Magnet draws in metal. (I know I said something back in chapter 4 about that.) I'm considering turning the PSI-sucking one into PK Magnet instead of PSI Magnet...if you review the story, include what you think on this. I'll be changing the magnet stuff based on any reviews I get.

And if you're someone who giggles at everything, just...don't read any of this story at all. I'll write another one about what Poo was doing and how he had to write a long English essay about what he did over the summer and rewrite Earthbound in essay form. How would you like to read an essay? Sound good?

I didn't think so.

This is a long chapter.

* * *

"And you...with the boy...go to the city with the zombies. See if you can...dispose of him.

"Aah!"

Ness woke up.

("You...you were kind of flipping out in your sleep.") King's eyes showed his concern although he could not show facial expressions.

"Oh...I had a dream that Escaryuba were going to destroy the city."

"We should all get to sleep, come to that. At this rate, when we actually get to fighting any Escaryuba we'll just collapse on the ground and they'll probe us with long golden sticks," said Duster, shuddering as he imagined himself being poked repeatedly in the arm by a golden rod held by a large banana with a face, then it poked him too hard and rolled him into a fire.

"Well, I'm not staying here," grunted Ness as he got off the floor.

"Where are you going?" asked Kumatora.

"Threed."

"There are zombies there!" exclaimed Paula. "Don't go!" Jeff's eyes darted from Paula to Ness, then to the two globules of PSI energy flying from King to Ness.

"So?" said Ness. "We'll handle them."

"That lady," added Jeff.

"We'll avoid her."

"How?"

"I dunno."

"I'm going. Who wants to come with me?" Everyone raised their hands (or in the dogs' case, paws.) "Right...PSI Teleport!"

CRACK!

Lightning struck a zombie wielding a golf club several feet away.

"We have to get out of the open street!" roared Duster over the torrential rainfall spattering against buildings, puddles, and everything else. All around them was the smell of rotting flesh. They could hardly see; the rain was forcing them to squint.

"Nye-he-heh!"

Over the pounding rain and the lightning and thunder, they heard a cackling voice.

"PSI Shield!" yelled Paula. A forcefield enveloped them all, blocking the rain from hitting the group. Soaking wet, but without rain hitting them, they were able to look around.

"Nye-he-heh!" The cackling sounded again, but this time Kumatora saw where it was coming from.

"Look!" she shouted, pointing upwards. A silvery spaceship was hovering above a crowd of zombies, dangling a rope from the bottom. On the end of the rope was...

"Lucas!" cried Duster.

("Lucas!") barked Boney.

"You can't save him now!" yelled a familiar voice. Lucas struggled to get free.

"You!" shouted Ness angrily. He charged through the forcefield and unleashed a blast of PSI Rockin' on the zombies and ship, strumming a glowing guitar made from energy and causing light to slash and burst, damaging and defeating most foes. This time, however, the strange vortex appeared again, sucking in all light and PSI energy before exploding violently. A flash of green light and several columns of light showed the aliens beaming up into a larger ship, cackling madly as most of them avoided the deadly light and explosion. Lucas, however, fell with the smaller ship as it sustained critical damage-right on top of three zombies that had dodged the majority of the PSI attack.

"Help!"

Ness charged forwards as he heard Lucas's voice; the gag must have slipped off when he hit the ground. The ship was on top of him, but he was still alive. Suddenly, the zombies turned on Ness and started...breakdancing?

"What are they doing!" roared Jeff over the rain.

"I don't know!" replied Ness. They closed in on him, then began to jump, spin and kick at the same time. Ness had the wind knocked out of him repeatedly, but he was still standing. So the zombies began punching him with both hands at once while walking in place. This hardly hurt, but it was certainly annoying. Just as Ness was about to take out his bat, however, they spun on their heads and kicked him repeatedly with the sides of their feet. Then Ness noticed that their necks were twisting. As they spun, he decided to keep them going. He did a backflip and landed in a handstand, which turned into a headstand as he spun in the opposite direction and twisted their necks so much they simply popped off and the zombies turned into dust.

"Hey! Kid! Are you okay?" a man shouted from a nearby window as the others walked up to Ness, who was now trying to lift the spaceship.

"I'm fine!" he yelled back as Duster and King tried to help. Paula, Kumatora, and Boney soon added their strength, and finally the vehicle lifted. Lucas was still tied up, struggling madly.

"I'm going to guess that you need help," said Kumatora.

"Yes!" Lucas exclaimed, rolling over. "Ouch!" he added as his head hit the side of the pavement.

Paula and Duster knelt down and began to untie Lucas, and Boney pulled the rope off before covering Lucas's face with licks, whimpering happily. Lucas hugged Boney as a loud moaning split the pounding of the rain.

"Aw, hell no," spat Kumatora. "More of them!" Sure enough, a large crowd of moving shapes was visible at the other end of the street.

"Run!" Ness commanded. They raced down the five feet of asphalt to another road, and then ran like the wind. Suddenly, Ness stopped and blocked the others from moving further by throwing his arms out. They almost trampled him, but then he shouted over the pouring rain.

"The hotel! We've somehow reached it!"

"I guess we were oblivious to where we actually were until we needed to know our location!" called Paula.

"It doesn't matter! We're safe now!" yelled Duster.

"Not with zombies everywhere," muttered Kumatora, though only King heard her and met her response with a questioning glance.

"Let's just go in!" Ness turned and went through the doors, followed by Paula, Jeff, and King. The other four-those from the future-hesitated, not sure if it was entirely safe. Would there be a trap? Those were common in some pla-

"Oi! You want your brains on the ground turning into a buffet or do you want them in your heads? Come on!"

They ran into the building without further ado.

"Hello, we'd like to check out...er...three rooms?" Ness looked confused for a moment, wondering if the people from the future preferred their own rooms or would accomodate others. But Duster nodded, followed by Kumatora, then Lucas. Jeff shrugged, although Ness thought he saw his eyes dart somewhere else for a moment. He quickly shook that and settled the issue of who-sleeps-where. Duster and Kumatora, Jeff and...wait...something compelled him to not finish thinking that. Jeff and...Lucas, with Boney. That left...

"Duster and Kumatora." They both shrugged, clearly not caring. "Jeff, Lucas and Boney." They shrugged too, though Ness thought he saw Jeff scowl for a split second. No, it couldn't have been...

His thoughts were broken by Paula. "That leaves you, me, and King," she said. "I just hope no zombies get in. I'd feel bad for them." She laughed, maybe a little hysterically. King barked and glowed silver and Paula flicked her hand, where a fireball appeared. A rumble of intense thunder punctuated the threat to zombies, and Ness backed away a bit, looking from his dog to his friend.

("We should probably go in,") King growled as the others went into their rooms.

"Say, King," Ness said, getting an idea. Paula stopped to listen. "Can you speak with Boney through walls?"

("Yeah. When you guys aren't paying attention and we aren't getting any lines, we're chatting away. It's better than texting, because you don't have to wait for the other person's reply and there's no evidence that we spoke at all.") Ness raised an eyebrow apprehensively, but King kept going. ("Don't worry, we're not cussing you all out or something like that.") Paula went into the room, followed by King and Ness.

"Wow! Look at this!" Ness exclaimed, peering out the window. Paula walked over and looked, too.

"I'm surprised the rain doesn't splatter all over the window and block the view," said Paula.

("The rainfall is angled downwards and towards whatever the window is facing. It doesn't hit it,") explained King from the end of Ness's bed, where he seemed to be sleeping. They decided not to ask how he knew this, assuming it was just a guess.

"Oh." Ness then changed the topic. "Wonder what happened to the other building?"

"They must have torn it down."

Ness and Paula jumped back in alarm as a streak of lightning punctured the air and caused small bolts of electricity to leap from raindrop to raindrop. Several zombies collapsed as the electricity hit them. One ran across the field and leaped for the window.

"No!" said Ness, in the manner of scolding a small child. "Bad reanimated corpse!" He cracked it over the head with his bat and it hit the ground as a pile of dust. King opened one eye, raising one eyebrow before returning to what seemed to be feigned sleep.

"Remember when Jeff was being impersonated by a Starman?" Paula asked him.

"Yeah...wonder what happened to those guys?"

A chorus of moaning reached their ears. Looking out the window, they saw a crowd of zombies huddled around a spot. They seemed to be fighting over something.

"I'm going to see what the big deal is. If it's a Klondike bar, it's mine."

"How can you be thinking of Klondike bars at a time like this?"

But he had already vaulted out the window and was stunning the zombies with PSI Paralysis.

"Ness!" He was still fighting. Down on the ground, he felt pretty confident. He usually did.

"Welcome to Smash-Mart! How may I kill you?" He laughed at his own [kind of sick] joke. (In-story note: It's not as bad as shooting people's heads off with rocket launchers.)

* * *

"Two completely mismatched people, in the same room," groaned Jeff. Lucas sighed.

"Shut up," he growled, and turned around. "I don't care!"

Boney barked.

"Well, there's Duster and Kumatora-they're both older than all of us-Ness and Paula and King-who all know each other, and at least Ness and Paula are opposite genders-and then there's me and you and Brownie-"

("It's BONEY! Why can't anyone get my name right!")

"-we're all mismatched. I don't know you, we're from completely different time periods, and a lot of other things."

"Do I care? I could sleep for a moon-"

("I think you mean month.")

Lucas was already asleep.

* * *

"Hey, it is a Klondike bar!" He came running back through the rain and jumped into the window by flipping onto his hands and using PK Blast to propel himself up to the window. Paula dodged him as he landed on the floor and rolled across the room.

"Want it?" he offered.

"No, thanks." She looked away.

"Alright, I'll just put it in here." He opened the small fridge in the room and put it in there.

King yipped once.

"What was that?" asked Paula, looking around. King laughed to himself.

"Who knows?"

"Who cares?" said a voice. Lucas walked in the door as Ness and Paula stood at the window.

"Aah!" Ness was surprised, but King cocked his head at Lucas.

("That makes a nice catchphrase. Ha, you two hardly know each other, but-I have my suspicions.") He finished this confusing remark with a yawn.

"Do you have any idea what that means?" Lucas asked.

"'I think 'Who knows? Who cares?' makes a good catchphrase.' That's the first part...but what does he mean by suspicions?" King yipped again.

"Ah, well..."

"Wait a moment," said Ness. "The text up there says you were asleep."

"What text?"

"...Just ignore that. I thought you were asleep."

"Jeffica wouldn't stop complaining. He somehow woke me up." Paula burst out laughing at this, and used telekinetics to shut the door from across the room. Boney came through the door right before he did, growling softly.

"What about you?" Paula asked him.

("Jeffica,") he spat.

This was too much for Paula, and she collapsed on the floor, laughing. Ness and Lucas exchanged looks, and King actually woke up because of the laughing.

"W-what?" sputtered Ness, holding back laughter of his own-although mostly because Paula was laughing and he wasn't sure why, but it was funny. "What?"

Soon they were all laughing, and when they were done not one of them did not have a cramp.

Then a decaying hand scraped against the window, making a dull scratching sound.

"What was that?" asked Paula nervously.

"I...think...a zombie...it got on the ledge underneath the windowsill." Ness hesitated, not sure what had happened. He went over to the window with his bat, but the zombie was gone. Then several green heads and hands began appeared at the window. Ness jumped back in fright and Lucas backed up, raising his hand up to chest level.

"PK Love!" he shouted. White energy similar to waves crashed over the zombies, and as it swept over Ness and Paula they felt a strange tingling sensation. What was this power?

* * *

Duster yawned. Kumatora was slumped on the floor, asleep. He walked to the door and exited quietly, careful not to wake Kumatora. (He had done that once when they were adventuring with Lucas and Boney back in the Nowhere Islands and paid dearly for it.) Limping down the stairs, a hall, and a second set of stairs into the lobby, he realized someone was outside the window. No...something. It wasn't really...a person. It was more of a...

"Zombie!" Duster gasped. There was a knock.

"Help!" screamed a woman. "Hee-elp!"

Duster rushed to open the door, and she stumbled in. She was dressed all in black, with sunglasses and blonde hair.

"Thank you," she said, out of breath and blushing. Duster frowned. Why was she even out there?

"Why were you out there?" he asked.

"I came in by car, hoping to get to Fourside. My name is...uh..." She thought carefully about who she could pose as, and it came to her in an instant. "Venus. My name is Venus." Venus, the singer, looked similar to her, and she could use this to her advantage.

"Okay, well...I guess you know how hotels work, so..." He motioned to the sleeping receptionist who never left his post.

"Thank you," the woman repeated.

* * *

"Why did we have to come to Threed?" asked Paula. "I mean, we found Lucas and all, but..."

"Well...that's why. I thought we could find Lucas."

"Why not Onett or Twoson? What about Summers or Winters or Scaraba? Or another city with a number in its name?"

"Because...I had...a...dream." Ness began to hesitate.

"That I was here?" asked Lucas, raising an eyebrow.

"Well...yes."

"The odds of that are pretty low, but..."

Duster heard voices from Ness and Paula's room. He knocked quietly, as to not wake anyone else.

"It's Duster!" he hissed.

Ness leapt up from the floor and let him in before shutting the door again.

"What? What's the matter? Did you do something? Break a vase? Kill a man? Steal an egg roll?" Lucas spoke rapidly and quite much, so Boney seized a container of glue and applied it to Lucas's mouth, causing him to stop talking.

"No. There's a blonde woman dressed in black with sunglasses who was outside for some reason. Said-"

"It's her! The lady who trapped us in that pit with those zombies!" shouted Ness, causing someone on the floor above to hit something on the ground and yell irritably.

"No! She said her name was Venus!" Duster whispered audibly.

"Venus?" Paula was confused. "But she's a famous singer idolized by teenage girls everywhere! What would she be doing in a town full of zombies?"

"That's my question," muttered Ness bitterly. "And I'm answering it. That's not Venus. I don't think Venus even owns a pair of sunglasses."

Paula shot him a quizzical, almost angry look. Ness met her look with a spoken response and a suspicion in his head. Why would Paula be angry that he thought that? Unless...no. He shook the thought and spoke.

"Who would need them in a place like this? They block your view of the zombies so you can't avoid them, and it's dark all the time, just like it used to be."

"Mmph!" Lucas clearly had something to say, but the glue was working, causing Boney to smile in satisfaction. Duster noticed this.

"Why are you smiling?" he asked.

("Because I've saved you all from an endless babble of talk.")

"He says he's saved you all from an endless babble of talk," said Ness tonelessly. Then he glared at Boney, his voice regaining tone. "We could have heard something useful, you know."

Lucas wrenched his jaws apart using his own hands and spoke. "It used to be dark all the time?"

"It did." Paula glanced out the window. Lightning cast shadows of raindrops over them all as a chorus of moaning began from outside the window.

"The Sunshine Forest turned dark before I came here," he breathed.

"What!" exclaimed Duster. "How come you didn't tell us!"

"I...I didn't want to upset you or Kumatora."

("I knew,") growled Boney, ("but I couldn't tell anyone because they wouldn't have a clue what I was talking about.")

"This is bad. Very, very bad." Ness began to pace around the room. "What if this is connected?"

("If the world turns dark, it's usually bad,") barked King, standing suddenly.

"Shut up!" shouted someone from above.

"We saved all of you from aliens!" retorted Ness. "So you should take your own advice!"

"Oh my God! Am I talking to Ness and Paula and Jeff and Prince Poo?" Lucas, Duster and Boney sniggered but stopped at a sharp glance from Paula.

"No...just Ness and Paula and some strange people from the year 2097."

"You're delusional! You're not Ness!"

"I am, actually. You just don't realize it."

"Your adventures weren't real!"

"Stop making vague references to other fanfictions!"

"No!"

"You're telling me that zombies never invaded the town?"

"Yes!"

"You eejit, of course they did!"

"SHUT UP!" screamed someone else.

"WHY DON'T YOU!" yelled the person above them.

"BOTH OF YOU! WE'RE TRYING TO HAVE A CONVERSATION!" shouted Ness

"AT MIDNIGHT!"

"I THOUGHT IT WAS 3 AM!"

"EITHER WAY! WHY THE #$% ARE YOU HAVING A CONVERSATION AT MIDNIGHT AND/OR 3 AM!"

"SHUT UP!" screamed the other person again.

"I'M CALLING THE POLICE!" shouted the person above them.

"YOU DO THAT! THE ZOMBIES WILL STOP THEM ANYWAY!" retaliated the second person.

"THERE AREN'T ANY ZOMBIES! IT'S ALL FAKE!"

"STOP REFERENCING TO OTHER FANFICTIONS!" roared Ness.

"NO!"

"How long are they going to go on like this?" asked Duster.

"Probably until 3 AM." Paula shook her head.

"How long is that? I'm tired now and I can't do any math." Lucas laid down on the floor.

"Since it's midnight...eh...er...three...hours. Yes, three hours," answered Paula.

* * *

Three hours later, Ness and the other two had shouted themselves hoarse but were still arguing. Five others had joined the argument.

Paula, Lucas, Duster, King, and Boney had tried time and time again to fall asleep, but were woken by shouts. Eventually they just walked out of the room, and Ness didn't even notice.

"STOP DOING THAT!" shouted Ness.

"NO! I'VE MADE REFERENCES TO 37 DIFFERENT FANFICTIONS! WHY STOP NOW!"

"BECAUSE THIS IS ONE FANFICTION, NOT 37!"

"WHO SAID THAT!"

"ME!"

"NO, IT WAS ME!"

"SHUT UP! I'VE BEEN TRYING TO SLEEP!"

"YOU SHUT UP!"

"NO!"

"PSI HYPNOSIS OMEGA!" A wave of translucent, red and purple energy passed through walls and ceilings and simply caused everyone who was arguing to keel over and sleep. Ness did the same, although it was from exhaustion and not from his PSI Hypnosis.

"Dang..." muttered Lucas, shuffling back into the room. Following him were Paula, King, Duster, and Boney. Seeing Ness asleep on the floor caused them all to collapse in relief, falling in different spots and sleeping.

It was 10 AM and still dark.

"Urf...I've gotten seven hours of sleep and it's...still...dark?" mumbled Duster

"Seems like it," said Paula.

Lucas glanced out the window. Duster and Paula were right. Rain still poured, and it was still dark. Lightning illuminated raindrops, casting shadows over the room. King stirred from where he lay next to Ness. Suddenly the building began to quake.

Boney woke with a start. ("Whoa!") he barked, rearing up on his hind legs like a horse and charging out of the room.

"Boney! Where are you going?" called Lucas, running after him. Duster limped slowly out of the room.

"If they ask," he told Paula, glancing at Ness and King, "I'm going to find out what's happening." With that, she saw no more of him and was left alone in the room.

King yipped in his sleep, causing Paula to look at him with one eyebrow raised. He woke up and stood, as if he knew she was looking at him.

("Whatever. I yip in my sleep sometimes, y'know.") He had clearly seen the raised eyebrow. ("The only person we need to wake up now is this great lump.") With a half-hearted growl he turned his back and laid down again.

* * *

"Come HeEeEeRe..."

Zombies were chasing Ness, Paula and Jeff through the streets. They turned into an alley with a stack of crates in it.

"Didn't you hear me! Come here!"

"But you're a zombie!" exclaimed Jeff.

"No, I'm not." A hand reached out from an opening in the crates about the size of a door, grabbed all of them somehow, and pulled them in.

* * *

"Where are we!" exclaimed Ness, throwing his legs over his head, rolling over backwards and standing up. He almost kicked Paula through the wall, but fortunately she dodged and King growled violently.

"We're in a hotel," said Paula tonelessly. "In Threed."

At that moment Lucas came tearing into the room. "Oh, you're awake," he said when he saw Ness. Then he fidgeted a bit and told them to come quickly.

Ness launched himself off the top stair, jumping over the rest and hitting the ground running. A red eye appeared at a peephole, but it was just someone who had been arguing with Ness. Paula, King, and Lucas raced after him, but only Lucas was moving when they saw what awaited them.

"Is that a giant, transparent tunnel?" Ness asked.

"It sure is."

Duster limped over to them, Boney at his heels. At that moment Kumatora and Jeff lumbered sleepily down the stairs. The receptionist looked up for a moment, then went back to working.

"Oh, it's Jeffica," Lucas snorted contemptously. This was too much for Paula, who collapsed on the ground with tears streaming out of her eyes. She could hardly move for laughter.

"What's so funny?" exclaimed Ness. The receptionist looked up.

"Sir, you'll have to leave if you cannot control your animal."

"What the...animal? What?"

"It's Threed law. All blondes are animals." Lucas and Jeff, forgetting their hatred of one another, stomped towards the desk. The receptionist shrank back.

"Who enacted that!" demanded Jeff. Duster, King, Boney and Ness were preoccupied trying to shut Paula up. Kumatora was laughing too, but because of the law.

"The...the new mayor," stammered the receptionist.

Lucas suddenly realized that Jeff was next to him and kicked him in the shins. Jeff retaliated by hitting Lucas with an HP-Sucker. Lucas whirled and hit Jeff with a yo-yo and then a thick stick. Ignoring the fact that the weapon name rhymed, Jeff shot a laser, causing Lucas to backflip and use PSI Paralysis.

"Hey!" he shouted. "What was that for! You used a laser!"

"I don't like you!" responded Jeff as he dodged the blast of yellowish energy. He fired a bottle rocket, but suddenly a burst of fire scorched both him and Lucas. They both saw no more as a hard metal object collided with the backs of their heads.

"That takes care of that," said Paula, brushing her hands together.

"Sir, I must ask you to restrain your animal. It is attacking other animals. I suggest you-"

The receptionist was hit over the head with a frying pan.

"Huh," said Duster, taking note of the three unconscious people. "So blonde people are considered animals in Threed?"

"Yes," said Paula fiercely, clearly angry at the injustice.

"Okay, then...let's go see the mayor about his new law," suggested Kumatora.

("That's the first sensible thing you've said all day,") yipped Boney.

("That's the first thing she's said all day,") King reminded him.

"Was it?" said Kumatora. "I haven't noticed..."

While this was going on, Ness, Paula, and Duster were taking a look in the tunnel.

"Strange," said Duster. "Everyone is driving their cars and walking around and talking and shopping and biking and sleepwalking-"

"They're living normally in a transparent tunnel, ignoring the flesh-hungry zombies looking at them and moaning." Ness stopped Duster before he could say any more.

"It's like being the meats in a deli window that everyone stares at," observed Paula. "Ugh...they're drooling."

Outside, some zombies who had recently eaten were wolf-whistling at various passerby. The tunnel glass was soundproof, however, and the zombies were seen making strange faces (for zombies) without noise.

"What are they doing?" asked a young woman pushing a stroller.

"Pulling faces," laughed her husband.

"Wubba wuhm?" said their baby.

Kumatora and the two dogs came out, followed by a woozy-looking Jeff and Lucas.

"We're going to see the mayor, then," said Kumatora as she exited.

"Wubba wuhm?" said Jeff. Ness started laughing.

"Aba awah," said Lucas.

"Abada wabba!" There was a loud, happy shout from the baby in its stroller.

"Wumma wuhb?" asked Jeff.

"Akaba," replied the baby.

"Stuh pu!" Lucas told Jeff.

"No!"

"I think I've messed up their minds," muttered Paula.

"Pustid deah!"

"I hope those aren't limericks..." mumbled Duster.

("They're speaking in anagrams!") barked King.

"PSI Heal, then," said Ness lazily, waving his hand at the pair of them. They both stopped speaking in anagrams.

Then the world seemed to fade for a moment.

* * *

Just then a van pulled up to the sidewalk.

"Animal control?" asked Lucas. "What for-hey!" A burly man grabbed him and threw him in a cage held by his partner. Kumatora, Duster and Boney immediately sprang into action, leaving the other four to stare as they fought.

"You can't do that!" shouted Duster.

"Why can't I? He's an animal. Put him on a leash. You too," he added, looking at Boney. "And you." The silvery glow of PK Silver returned to King and his eyes literally flashed. The man was startled.

"Bad dog!" shouted his partner, flinging himself at King.

Ness quickly pulled his dog out of the way. "Hey! He's very well-trained!"

"No, he's not."

"What are you talking about?"

The man's response was to scoop up King and Boney while the other man grabbed Jeff and Paula.

Ness, Duster, and Kumatora sat there, stunned.

"And you!"

"You look like you might be blonde!"

"My hair is brown!" shouted Duster.

"Oh." The two men climbed into the van and took off.

"Who called Animal Control!" roared Ness, shaking with anger.

"Me," said a voice.

"And who are you?"

"I am..."

* * *

The world faded again, then came back. Paula and Jeff were looking at him with quizzical expressions on their faces.

"Ness...your eyes just glazed over..." said Paula.

"It was really strange...you wouldn't answer us," said Jeff.

"We can't go any further. We have to go in or run. NOW!" commanded Ness. They turned and ran into the building.

"So...what's the deal?" asked Paula, sitting on a bed in their hotel room. King cocked his head.

"I saw something...you, Lucas, Jeff, Boney, and King being taken away by Animal Control. They were called by a man...I don't know who."

"Are you sure you weren't-" began Kumatora.

"OPEN THE DOOR! WE KNOW THE ANIMALS ARE IN THERE!" shouted a voice.

"Quick! Out the window!" Ness opened it.

"We'll be torn to pieces!" cried Lucas.

"No, you won't! Hurry!" He himself vaulted out of the window. Lucas hesitantly followed.

"Are you coming or not?" shouted Ness from the ground. Lucas was standing with his back to Ness, looking around nervously.

They jumped.

"Well, we've escaped," said Duster when they were in a dark patch of woods. Forked lightning illuminated the hotel in the distance and rain kept pouring.

"With only minor gashes," muttered Lucas.

"We're alive, aren't we?" snapped Jeff.

("All of these sentences have began with 'w' and I'm breaking the alliteration,") growled King.

("Ruddy Animal Control!") exclaimed Boney.

"No," Paula corrected him, "ruddy mayor. Animal control wouldn't be after us if he hadn't so strictly enforced the no-animals law he created and made all blondes animals."

"Yeah, I saw a bunch of blonde people on leashes," said Ness angrily. "Why would anyone ever do that?"

"Because they're idiots?" suggested Lucas.

"You can't keep a person on a leash unless...some people are going to walk in here and think-" Ness was interrupted.

"-and they're going to think that something's fishy." Paula looked at him, expecting him to say something. But he shook his head.

"I'll go look for zombies," Kumatora offered.

"Sure," said Duster, "but you can't use PK Fire. It's raining."

"Alright." She got up and vanished into the woods around them. Judging from the noise of the rain hitting leaves, it was coming down hard, but the group's PSI Shield let them remain dry.

"Maybe I can find...something." Lucas shrugged and vanished into the woods as well. Jeff went the other way without saying anything, and Boney ran after Lucas. King whimpered and stayed with Ness. Duster stood up.

"I guess he was glad to be able to get away from Lucas." Then Duster looked around. "I don't suppose any of you would want to find something to eat?"

"This is the woods in Threed!" exclaimed Ness. "What would we ever find here?"

"Berries?" Lucas was back already. "I wanted to find a place to get away from Jeff, but Boney told me he had gone. These came from a bush a few meters away." He showed them a handful of berries.

"Just say yards...it's too complicated to calculate exactly what 3.3 feet is," said Ness menacingly. His tone suggested he did not like the metric system.

"3 feet, 4 inches."

"PK Ground!" A voice-Kumatora's-was heard in the distance. There was a quake, and it was over.

"Er...what was that?" asked Paula.

"PK Ground," answered Lucas simply. "It's a PSI attack-but I don't think it exists here, in this time. It was never...how to put this..."created" by whatever controls PSI energies and stuff."

"You learn something new every day," said Duster. "Well, maybe not. I didn't learn anything for a year and a half."

"Don't give me that crap," spat Ness. "I haven't learned anything for three and a half years."

"You're telling me you were 11 and you knew how to multiply binomials?" said Lucas.

"I guess so. I don't remember."

"What about factoring?"

"Easy. What do you know?"

"I know you all should go do something."

"Who said that!" said Lucas, panicking.

"The narrator."

"Really? Okay...what's my real name? Am I an alien? Is there some kind of endoparasitic horror inside of me? Do I like cheeseburgers? What's a lolcat? Why am I going into the topic of an internet meme?

"Why should I tell you?"

"He's got me there," Lucas told the small group.

Kumatora suddenly came back through the bushes, panting.

"What's the matter?" Duster asked.

"PK Ground takes a lot out of you," she sighed, sitting on a log. Duster sat down as well, and Lucas sat next to him. Boney laid at his feet.

"Shouldn't Jeff be back by now?" asked Paula.

"Yeah," replied Ness. "Come on, we should find him." He got up with Paula and King, and they went off.

"We'll be back!" promised Paula.

They trekked through the dense woods, which were somewhat jungle-like.

"Reminds you of something, eh?" grinned Ness. Paula laughed.

"'Oh, there's a tick on the back of my hand!'" She was mimicking herself. "I sounded so ridiculous."

("I've still gotta worry about those fat dog ticks,") muttered King. ("NOT fun.") As he said that, a fissure opened up in the ground and a hooked foot about the size of Ness's head rose out of it, anchoring itself in the ground.

"You had to speak, didn't you?" growled Ness, taking out his bat.

("It's more of a thought-") King began, but Ness had already flipped through the air and proceeded to hit the claw with all the strength he could muster.

"PK Thunder!" shouted Paula forcefully. A bolt of lightning roared down from the sky and shot down the fissure. There was an earsplitting noise, emitted by the...

("T-t-t-tick!") yelped King, turning around as the creature painfully hoisted itself up. Then he remembered PK Silver. Whirling around, he howled the PSI attack and immediately silver energy surged forwards from him, like a giant wave of water. Ness, spotting it, quickly managed to climb a nearby tree. Paula stayed to the side as it cascaded into the fissure and the tick lost its grip from the force of it. There was a splash and a bloodcurdling wail as a glowing, hot substance-lava or magma or something similar-flew out of the fissure. Suddenly a metal object sped out of the fissure and up into the sky, far into the air.

"Not so fast! PK Thunder!" cried Paula. Another lightningbolt came down, but it didn't have far to go as it struck the small metal object high in the sky. It plummeted back down to earth, and into the fissure, but-

"PSI M-Magnet!" Ness shouted. The metal object flew back out of the fissure and Ness caught it by a wing...a wing?

"A spaceship?" said Paula, confused. Ness was more concerned about the new gash in his hand caused by the sharp wing.

"Ahh, shoot," he muttered, examining the wound. The spaceship's circuitry had been blown by the lightning and it could not fly, so it remained on the ground as King sniffed it. Suddenly he backed off.

("That's disgusting!") he yelped, a paw over his nose.

"What does it smell like?" asked Paula.

("Smells like...like...rotten bananas and some smoky metallic stuff.")

"Smoky metallic stuff?" said Ness, waving a glowing hand over the gash. "Lemme see that."

He picked it up and took a careful look at it. Then he grabbed a stick off the ground and, after finding a crack in the shell, pried away some of the smouldering metal, revealing circuitry. After that the inside was revealed.

"Ha, it's a toy Starman," laughed Ness.

Just then a head burst out of the earth and clamped its teeth on Paula's shoe. "PK Freeze!" she shouted. The head froze solid as arms came up beside it, hoisting a body from the ground. It had no head, seeing as it was on Paula's shoe. Ness wrenched its jaws apart and kicked the body, although it was no real danger. It split apart quite easily.

"That was scary," breathed Paula.

"We should go," muttered Ness. "It's clearly not safe here."

Paula kept close to Ness as they walked towards the city, King next to them.

* * *

"This sucks," mumbled Lucas. "I'm classified as an animal."

"Oh, quit your moping," said Kumatora. "I'm sure-"

"GRR-RAAOOOH!" A distant roar startled them all.

"That was strange," said Duster, his voice shaking.

Then a large humanoid flew overhead, followed closely by a human riding what seemed like a small dragon. The human was holding some sort of staff with a glowing spherical shape at the end.

"Who or what was that?" said Kumatora, looking into the distance.

* * *

"Well, that was absolutely exhausting," panted Ness.

("You can say that again,") gasped King. The three of them had just run into an alleyway after being chased by zombies.

"Hey! Ness! Paula! King!" said a familiar voice.

"Jeff!" exclaimed Ness, grinning.

"There you are! We were-" began Paula, but a low moan interrupted them.

"Come HeEeEeEeEeEre...heEeEeEeEre..."

"Fred, you're not a ghost! You're a zombie! And we're chasing some people, so focus on that!" snapped a female voice.

"Sorry, Carol...I do get carried away sometimes," said Fred the zombie guiltily.

"I'm going to see if they're in the alley..." whispered Paula, but Ness grabbed her arm and pulled her back, maybe a little roughly.

"Sorry," he said. "But we can't risk it." He clammed up as a strange noise nearby reached his ears, but it was only King sniffing the crates.

"Ness...er...you can let go now," said Paula. Ness realized he was still holding her arm.

"Oops," he said, letting go.

("Found something!") growled King. ("Come move this crate.") He prodded a crate on the second row with his muzzle. Ness removed it and realized that the stack was hollow-they could hide in it. He removed the one that had been below it and pulled Jeff and Paula in from where they were talking quietly.

"In here!" he hissed, replacing the crates. They were safe...for now.

"Whew...that was close," sighed Paula, sinking down onto a crate laying on the ground. It was rather peaceful in here, with the rain drumming on the crates overhead and the knowledge that they were safe.

"Thank King," said Ness.

("No, honestly-thank Ness. He realized it was hollow and a safe place to hide-I just smelled something.")

"You're too modest," he told his dog. "Take some credit, LD," he added affectionately, ruffling his dog's head fur as Ness's dad had done to him when he was a little kid. Paula hugged them both.

"Aah! What are you hugging us for?" laughed Ness.

"Well, you both saved us all!" she said. Jeff shrugged and joined the group hug, then after they collapsed in a pile Ness began tickling King.

("Aah! Stop!") he yipped happily as Paula and Jeff laughed. Ness grinned widely, but it was erased as they all heard something.

"Carol!" shouted a voice -Fred the zombie's. "I've found them!" They heard slow, shuffling footsteps, then a dull thud of something being dropped.

"Those are pineapples! How did you forget the difference between food and pineapples?" asked a female voice.

"Whoops," said Fred.

"I thought pineapples were food," said Ness.

"They're zombies. Living things are their food," said Jeff. Ness noticed that he was not being hostile towards them, only Lucas. He decided to ask why.

"Jeff...why are you so hostile towards Lucas?" he asked.

"I don't know him. I don't exactly like him. We have contrasting personalities and nothing in common, and it gets uncomfortable when two guys have to share a room, even if they sleep in different beds."

"Jeff, we did that. You, Poo and Ness always slept in the same room. I was there, but-"

"That's the reason I could deal with it. You were there. A-"

"Are you talking about just me or any girl?" Paula interrupted him, raising an eyebrow. Ness laughed quietly to himself. He had nearly forgotten he had eyebrows, and while he was making sure they still worked Jeff began to speak again.

"Any girl! That's what I started to say before you interrupted me," said Jeff, glad it was dark. He was pretty sure he was going red.

"PK Flash!" cried Ness suddenly, springing up. A flash of light illuminated the hollow inside of the crate stack.

"What was that for!" yelled Jeff, weeping uncontrollably.

"PSI Heal," said Ness, waving a hand over the both of them. "We can't afford to be arguing, especially loudly. Not in our current situation."

"Ness is right." Paula had spoken. "Zombies have ears. They can hear us."

"Rotted ears," said Ness. "But ears."

("So what do we do?") growled King. ("Zombies are after us, and there's too many to fight.")

"We evade them," said Ness, leaning aganinst the wall of the building the crates were next to. He felt something hard on his back, and he turned around to find a doorknob. He turned it.

"What is it?" asked Jeff.

"Doorknob," replied Ness simply. "But it's locked."

"I can solve that," said Paula. She pushed past the boys and King to the doorknob. "PK Freeze!" she hissed. Then she kicked the door and it swung open with a crack.

"What did you do?" asked Ness.

"Froze the metal bar that stops the door from opening.. It snaps pretty easily once you do that, I guess."

"Genius!" said Jeff. "I would've never thought of it..."

"I was just trying that idea out...I didn't know it would work."

"Still, though...wish I could have thought of that..."

("Even if you did, you couldn't have tried freezing the bar,") pointed out King. ("Unless you own a freeze ray.") Jeff had no response to this, and walked inside of the building.

"What do you reckon this is?" asked Ness, looking around cautiously.

"Uh...the inside of a building?" said Paula. They laughed nervously. Suddenly the door swung shut behind them and the lights turned on. They flickered for a moment and then went out again, but from what they had seen it looked like the backstage of a theatre. There was a set of large doors

"Great. There goes our chances of escape," said Ness.

"There's bound to be a front door," said Jeff. "Don't flip out...yet." He spoke the last word to himself.

"Right," said Paula. "And how are we going to see?"

("Hire a trained bat to use sonar. I'll tell you what he's saying,") said King dully.

"Sonar! That's it!" exclaimed Jeff suddenly. "I've been wondering what I could do with this..." He pulled out an old-looking metal box with something similar to a window in it. Through it a battered old bunch of wires and small bulbs could be seen.

"What was it?" asked Paula.

"Some kind of old monitor, but it broke and someone threw it away. Give me a little time. Meanwhile, Ness...do that flashy thing. Maybe we can see a door-if only for a second. It'd be better to go in there than staying out in the open."

Ness nodded before using PK Flash.

"There!" said Paula, pointing. They sensed her begin to walk away towards the door and followed.

"Is that eejit back yet?" Lucas yawned.

"Nope," Kumatora responded sleepily. Duster was on zombie-watch.

"We're sitting here alone together waiting for a thief to tell us if he's seen any zombies," Lucas mumbled. "Stupid."

"What?" said Kumatora.

"Rock lobster," Lucas said tonelessly. Just then they spotted Duster limping back towards them.

"Any luck?" asked Kumatora sleepily.

"Lots," replied Duster. "No zombies. It's Boney's turn, by the way." He looked around. "Where does that dog hide all the time?"

Lucas's response was to kick the log he was sitting on with his heel, and Boney wormed out of it.

"Oh," said Duster. "Time to watch for zombies. You'll be able to smell 'em, too."

("Yeah,") growled Boney. ("A mile away, and they'll still knock my nose off.") Duster collapsed the ground.

"You smell like you've been in a mossy log," he mumbled as Boney passed with his head low and shoulders hunched.

* * *

"Peculiar, isn't it?" asked Paula, examining the wall.

"Highly," said Ness. "Looks like bloodstains." They looked pointedly at each other as the machine Jeff was repairing whirred and clicked softly.

"I'm still trying to install the device that will send and recieve soundwaves, then I'll have to find out how to convert them into a sort of radar-map using these light emitting diodes...this was an old monitor, so I guess it would have those..." Jeff told them.

"Er...why is it whirring and stuff?" asked Ness.

"It's a characteristic of machines being repaired-a clich , if you ask me," replied Jeff.

"Oh." He turned and looked at the bloodstains, to see that they had moved about a foot down and to his left.

"N-Ness?" said Paula, also noticing that they had moved.

"I see, Paula," Ness said shakily. "I don't know what happened. Are we seeing things? Let's find out." He used PSI Heal Alpha on himself and Paula, to see if it would cure any hallucinations-it cured sunstroke, which could cause mirages. Those were similar to hallucinations.

"They're still there," said Paula.

"Maybe they are real," said Ness. "Maybe someone was murdered here. Two people, if there are seperate bloodstains."

("Hey! I found some sort of weird panel on the ground,") barked King suddenly, although it was a quiet bark.

"PK Flash!" said Ness. In the brief flash, he saw a warning. STAIRS, it read.

"Those are stairs!" he said. "Wonder why-"

CLANG!

A loud noise echoed from outside of the room; Paula actually fell over and King rushed over to them, whimpering.

"What was that?" asked Jeff. They moved to him so they could talk quietly, though nobody knew quite why they were being quiet.

"Scary," responded Ness.

Suddenly it got very cold. Paula grasped Ness's hand, and he was dimly aware of it as they backed into a corner. Something like footsteps was echoing from outside the door. They were getting closer.

"Paula?" Ness whispered as he came back to his senses. She and Jeff seemed petrified.

"Jeff?"

No response came from either. Ness took advantage of the fact that they wouldn't notice him and tickled them.

"This isn't a time for that!" hissed Jeff a moment later, pushing Ness's hand away. It was obviously working.

"I'm trying to get you two to come back to your senses."

Paula smiled weakly. "Well...it worked."

King growled at the door. There had been no footsteps going away.

"What's happenening?" Ness whispered. "We come in here looking for some shelter from zombies and we get the full haunted house experience."

Then a voice out in the hall roared, "EKSPULCA!"

There was a bright green flash, a terrible wailing, and the door was blasted off its hinges in a massive explosion of energy that seemed more like slime; a tremendous roar shook the building and another green flash nearly blinded them all.

"TERRORIZING INNOCENTS! HELL, NOT AGAIN!" the voice roared. "I SUPPOSE YOU WERE GOING TO KILL THEM LIKE YOU'VE KILLED EVERYONE ELSE WHO'S ENTERED THIS THEATRE AFTER THAT PERFORMANCE, YOU GHASTLY WITCH!" A horrible wailing met this, but now it was distinguishable as the wail of an old woman which turned into a cackle.

"YOU CAN GET RID OF ME BUT YOU CAN'T REVIVE THOSE PEOPLE!" went the cackling voice, sounding quite like it was from the stories told to kids about witches-notably, The Wicked Witch's cackle.. The voice cursed a bit and with another green flash everything suddenly stopped. A head poked in the door, and they were shocked by its appearance.

The teen's hair was forest-green, with a brighter mohawk in the center. They noticed that his-for the teen was indeed a he-shoulder that was visible was made of metal, and as the figure stepped out they could tell that his arm was not entirely organic-it was biomechanical. Clearly that arm had been slashed quite a lot. The other arm was less wounded, but it also had a metal armor piece on the shoulder and a slim shield strapped to it.. His hand had a glove on it, but they had no more time to take in his appearance because as his eyes swept over Ness, Paula and Jeff they went wide and he vanished in a bright blue flash.

"Who was that?" asked Jeff.

"I don't know," breathed Paula.

("They drove off that thing, whatever it was, but I think he knows something about you three.") King looked meaningfully at them.

"Uh...okay," said Ness.

"Let's not focus on that for now. Let's focus on where we're going to go next-that thing might be gone, but those bloodstains keep moving and I know they blocked the stairs off for a reason...I can sense it," said Paula.

"Er...Paula...it's because people didn't read the warning and fell down them. I'm pretty sure," Jeff told her.

"No...this place is really haunted. At least this room is. Those bloodstains were originally there." She reached up to show Jeff, and remembered that she had grabbed Ness's hand and turned red. Luckily it was dark.

Jeff pretended not to notice. "They were here?" he said. "Most likely you were scared and didn't pay attention to their actual location."

"No," said Paula, still red. "You should get working on that sonar thing. It's not gonna fix itself. Ness, let's look over here. Maybe we can find some clues as to what that performance was. You remember-that person mentioned it." She walked over to a row of lockers, separated from the rest of the room by a short inner wall that extended a few feet from the actual wall.

"So where do you suppose we begin?" asked Ness.

"Just look through lockers," said Paula. But as he moved away she said, "Wait!"

"Eh?" he said, turning around. King walked over and looked around. Then he looked straight at Ness.

("We dogs can usually detect people's moods. Ness-") he began.

("Can't Paula understand what you're saying?") Ness directed a telepathic message at his dog.

("I'm directing all my mindwaves at you,") he replied silently. ("But-")

"Ness, do you...do you know the real reason I asked you to come over here?" she asked.

("Hey, Ness! A clich is about to happen! Listen to me!") King thought-shouted.

"No," said Ness. ("What do you mean, clich ? Which one? There's a load of canon/clich junk lying around the fanfiction community.")

("I think...it's...called...") King struggled to remember.

"Ness...when you first rescued me...the door opened and I saw you silhouetted against the sunlight holding the key Carpainter gave you...I...I felt something...

"Our entire journey, that feeling didn't leave me...it still hasn't. But now...but now I know what it is. Ness, I think..no...I know...I...I..."

("That feeling...you have tapeworms, and you think...no...you know...you know you need viricide.") Ness resisted the urge to laugh.

He did not move. He was not sure what he wanted.

"Paula...er..." he began. But he subconsciously moved forwards too. Did he really want to risk his friendship with Paula for something a little more?

"I couldn't get rid of that feeling...I thought about telling you...but we were out adventuring all the time. It was hard.

"And when I remembered that feeling just now, when that thing came...it was strong. I knew I had to, or it would just bother me for a while."

("Tapeworms bother you for a very long while,") King snorted, although he was still trying to remember the name of what was about to happen.

"Ness...I like you. A lot."

She moved forwards some more. Ness knew what was going to happen, but now that he knew he couldn't remember the name of it any better than King.

"No...I love you."

"You've realized I've had seventeen girlfriends?" he asked.

"What?" said Paula.

"What?" replied Ness.

"Well, it doesn't matter...I can force it out of you later with the threat of peanuts." Ness's eyes went wide. He hated peanuts. But since everyone else in his family loved them there were always a few canisters in the cabinets.

"Paula...er..." he began again, but they both moved forwards (although Ness's movement was partially because he was pushed by something that was actually a ghost that wanted the scene over with) and their lips met.

Suddenly King remembered. ("A pairing! That's it! That's...er...oh.") He had looked up.

("I was going to finish my line, but there's no point because it wasn't directed at you, King,") thought Ness, directing the thought at King.

* * *

"Fools!" said Duster drunkenly.

"Raaah!" said Lucas, falling over. They were going crazy, not being able to sleep.

"Why aren't you sleeping?" asked Kumatora.

"Can't," said Duster. "If zombies jump us while we're...zzz...z...z...z...z...zz..."

"Well, he acknowledges that it's my turn to watch, anyway," said Kumatora. She got up and Boney followed. (He had gone foraging in an alley because he was hungry and found some old ground coffee beans in a container in a garbage can. By the time he got it out of the container and into a bowl it was already coffee and he figured he should drink it. Now he was wired and very jumpy.)

("I guess coffee has more of an effect on dogs than it does on people after all our bodies are smaller and our internal structure different from those of humans and if a dog goes for a walk it is excercising most of its muscles even its tail muscle thing because most dogs wag their tails while going for walks and when a dog walks it uses all four of its limbs but if you consider a neck a limb then all five of them because a dog is constantly looking around and sniffing and taking in its surroundings and it even excercises its bladder because frequently dogs consider their surroundings to be their territory although most will accept other dogs near them because it's a rather unfamiliar place because obviously there are only a few hundred dogs who really have a sort of second home.") He thought-said this very fast, clogging Kumatora's mind with the words.

"Aah, stop it, Boney! I can't concentrate!" she said.

Boney said "sorry" so fast it sounded like "sry."

Suddenly an agonized roar sounded out over the forest.

"What was that?" asked Kumatora.

("Don't ask me, because I don't know. But I do know what E=mc squared means.")

Something streaked across the sky. Kumatora and Boney watched it fly away. It seemed to be ascending, and quite suddenly it vanished.

"Did you see something...driving it?" asked Kumatora.

("Yes,") said Boney.

"What did it look like?"

("Some kind of slightly mutated Mewtwo...")

"A what?"

("Don't bother. It's hard to explain.")

Sometime in the past, a boy looking like Ness with several others was fighting a creature that looked quite like a Mewtwo. But there was one thing that made it nothing like a Mewtwo: They didn't exist in this universe. No...this thing was certainly more light gray than white. It did not have a purple tail-indeed, this was not a Mewtwo at all.

* * *

Please review! (46 hits in several hours and no reviews! X_X)

Is it because I made King crack tapeworm jokes?

**End of Chapter Notes:**

That was absolutely exhausting to write. I got writer's block and then after I overcame it rewrote the chapter two or three times. I'm satisfied with this final version.

I'm not a good pairing writer, don't ask why-it sounded better in my head. (It was also somewhat of a reason for tapeworm jokes.)

I do own that strange teenager, though-you'll find out more about him later.

The last paragraph is really quite a big hint about WHAT THE #$% IS GOING ON! (I don't know myself.)

If there's ever another pairing in here, it will not be LucasxKumatora. I dislike that. Lucas is 12 or 13. Kumatora's 17. Get that through your heads. There's only two other people on here who share my views, and you know who you are.

I've never actually played Mother 1-I've played a very, very glitchy version in which I died repeatedly because I was fighting things that were meant for when you had more people in your party. Plus the movement was really slow and PSI was hard to access. In order to understand what the entire plot and stuff was so I had a basic idea of Mother 1, I had to read stuff on a wiki.

And I do know what E=mc squared means. It's something about energy being equivalent to mass-the more energy something has, the greater the mass. For example, if a train is going extremely fast, there will be a conversion of some of its energy into mass. The train becomes larger, in a sense, but when it loses energy it loses mass.

Well, okay, I might be wrong. I probably am. Go look it up if you don't like that I'm wrong...if I am.


	8. Visions, Plots, and Things

Chapter 8: Visions, Plots, and...Things

The four Earthbound characters return to the Mother 3 characters and something strange happens...

That guy returns! The writer is in the story twice during a relentless attack on the fourth wall! I think the scientific name of the domestic dog is Canis Domesticus! It's not!

FAILURE.  
-

BEEP!

Ness and Paula broke apart at a loud beep from across the room. King whimpered at the noise.

"It's ready!" called Jeff.

"That was fast," said Ness, walking towards Jeff. Ness was glad it was dark, since he was sure his face was red.

"I found some spare parts in my pack," Jeff told them, waving a backpack of sorts at them.

("How convenient,") growled King, shooting a ticked-off glance at the writer.

"I didn't feel like writing about Jeff repairing something for seven pages. Don't look at me like that!" said the writer.

"Well, we've got a sonar device now," said Jeff proudly.

"Glad we've got you." Ness clapped him on the back.

"So where are we going to go? We've got a sonar device. How does it work?" asked Paula.

"Here." Jeff pressed a button and there was a small beep. A second later, a line appeared. It was in the shape of the wall, if you looked at it top-down.

"Wow!" breathed Paula, amazed.

"Idea!" Ness exclaimed, springing up. He walked to the panel covering the stairs and stomped on it, causing a small hole to appear. "Now see what's down here! Maybe we can get some sort of map!"

"That's...actually, that's a good idea," said Jeff. "No danger, but we still know what's down here." He looked around. "Most likely a soundwave will bounce off lots of stuff, so we might be able to scan the whole room with just one go." He pressed the button. A small beep, and a five-second wait. Then an image appeared.

"W-what is that?" asked Paula, her voice shaking.

"Looks like one of those chalk outlines," replied Ness.

"But this can't scan images...only solid objects," Jeff said, confused.

"Then that means," breathed Ness, "we're not looking at a chalk outline. We're looking at..."

"A body," whispered Paula. As the map slowly formed, more came into view.

"Eight," said Ness. "Eight people have been killed."

"It might have been 11 and one dog if it weren't for that teenager. Wonder who he is?" said Jeff.

"You know, I don't think that was the only ghost here," said Paula. "But I think it was the only murderous one."

("It probably just sneaks up on 'em and gives em a-")

"Don't," said Ness suddenly. "Don't."

"We should get out of here. It's less creepy being chased by zombies," Jeff announced.

"Yes, let's leave," said Paula.

Jeff got up and started to walk towards the exit. Hand in hand, Paula and Ness followed Jeff. King was with them.

* * *

"Oh, hey! Kumatora! Boney! There you are!"

Duster and Lucas had appeared behind them as they stood at the edge of the woods.

"What's wrong?" asked Lucas, seeing their faces.

("Something very strange just happened,") answered Boney. He proceeded to describe the occurance to Lucas and Duster.

"So something strange flew across the sky and into space, and it looked like it was being driven by something called a Mewtwo?" said Duster.

"Mewflew? What?" Lucas's expression was quizzical.

("Don't ask,") said Boney dully. Suddenly three people and a dog teleported into their midst.

"Hello," said Ness cheerily. "Wet out, isn't it?"

"Too true," muttered Duster, who was starting to think he wouldn't be properly dry for months.

"'Wet' is an understatement," said Lucas, bending over and wringing his hair out; several gallons of water poured out of it.

"Jeez, Lucas, did you make a wig out of a towel?" asked Ness, grinning.

"Feels like it."

Suddenly the world faded.

"Not again," moaned Ness.

* * *

A small squad of walking bananas-Escaryuba-were marching along a long road coated in dirt towards a white building where several cars were parked. As they approached Ness realized that the town was Twoson-he could tell by the rather hazy-looking air and the yellowish grass. There were also several hippies on the side of the road.

As they walked, the building came into better focus. It had lettering on it.

P..P-C...no, P-O-L...P-O-L-E...

Ness didn't need to see any more. Paula's last name was Polestar. Her parents owned a preschool called Polestar Preschool, since that was obviously their last name as well. The kids there virtually god-worshipped Paula, and she felt affection for them. She was really a kind of unofficial assistant. But Ness had more serious matters on his mind.

They had found Lucas after Ness had a dream about him being taken to Threed. With a jolt he realized that they had said to destroy Fourside. He hoped at least that part had been wrong.

But wait! Lucas had been nearly killed only a few minutes later...meaning they should get to Twoson as soon as possible.

End, he willed the vision. End, so we can go there.

But it did not. Instead, they began firing at the preschool from a range with laser weapons...

END!

The vision faded.

* * *

"We have to get to Twoson," said Ness suddenly, startling them all.

"Why?" asked Paula.

"Escaryuba. Polestar Preschool." Paula gasped at these words and Jeff's eyes went wide, but nobody else was rattled in the least.

"Come on, now! It doesn't matter where you're from-you've still got a job: saving people." These words were spoken by Lucas.

"How does he know?" asked Duster.

"He saw the commander ordering me to be killed in a dream. It happened several minutes later-but you all interfered and saved me."

"But probably not Fourside," moaned Ness.

"What?" asked Jeff.

"I think Fourside...it's been attacked. I paid more attention to the warning about Lucas's death than the warning about Fourside..."

"But that's the past," Lucas pressed. "We've gotta save this preschool place now, don't we?" He glanced back at Duster and Kumatora. They looked determined.

"Lucas is right," said Kumatora, standing a bit taller.

"Let's go. That's the past. Wess caused an accident that messed up my leg when I was a boy...but that's the past. I've forgiven him, even though it's been a while."

"But I might be responsible for the destruction of a city."

"Ness." It was Paula. The look in her eyes made him uneasy. "You can't sit here moping about how you might have destroyed a city." She emphasized "might." "If we don't get moving you're certainly going to be responsible for more than one death. My parents' lives are at stake. Those little kids' lives are at stake."

Ness stood up, and to almost everyone's alarm his eyes were blazing with a light that only Jeff and Paula had seen before. Nothing would change his mind now.

"All of you are right...I won't do this again. I might have destroyed a city, but there's no time to mope about 'might' situations." He immediately forced everyone together by psychic so that they were all in contact with one another, grabbed Paula and Jeff's hands, and used PSI Teleport Beta.

* * *

CRASH!

They had landed in a trash can and were now trying to get out of it. All they had managed to do was knock it over, where it fell onto the street and was hit by a car. Jeff and Duster flew out of it and managed to pull the others out, leaving a banana-peel-covered Boney and a sooty King to crawl out of it.

"Soot?" said Lucas. "What was in there?"

("Old burnt fireworks,") coughed King, looking back into the trash can.

Boney shook himself (like a dog would if it was wet) and peppered everyone with bits of rotting fruit.

("Bleech! I'm already covered in soot, just worsen the smell, will you?") retched King.

Suddenly something plummeted downwards out of the sky and crash-landed in the forest.

"I'm actually getting used to this," grumbled Ness.

"That's a shock," said Kumatora tonelessly.

"Since we already know what it is, we may well just hide and ambush them," said Lucas.

"Idea!" exclaimed Duster. He whipped out some large staples.

"Er...I don't see anything that we can stick them in," said Kumatora, looking around. Duster immediately plunged them into a nearby tree and began climbing with them, leaving the shining staples he had used before in the trunk. Without hesitation, Lucas, Kumatora, and Boney climbed the makeshift ladder.

"It's fine, he's got them in the trunk pretty deep," called Lucas.

("He's climbed rock walls and stuff with these,") said Boney.

"I'm not trying to make you guys brag about me. I'm just trying to climb stuff," Duster said, although he was now creating small ledges out of staples.

Although they weren't sure what would happen, they began to climb the staples.

"There," said Kumatora, pointing.

A small yellow object marched out of the woods. They waited for more, and more came. Soon a whole horde of them was marching down the road.

"That's an awful lot..." said Paula.

"Awful lot in both senses," growled Ness.

"What?" asked Lucas.

"There's an awful lot of them, and the whole lot of them are awful," Ness replied.

"So when do we-" began Jeff, but King was already down on the ground.

"I can't leave my dog out there, even if he single-handedly killed a giant tick," said Ness, and he slid down the tree.

"I'm bored, to be honest." Duster followed, sliding on the soles of his shoes. The three of them prepared for an intense battle.

"PK Rockin'!" shouted Ness, leaping up into the air and kicking off the sides of trees. A storm of light and PSI energy was unleashed upon the Escaryuba, but again the vortex appeared, sucked in light and PSI energy, and exploded.

"What is that?" asked Paula from the tree. "It never happened on our adventure..."

"Very unusual," said Jeff as he took aim with a laser.

"PK Fire!" yelled Kumatora, standing up and ignoring their conversation.

"PK Love!" cried Lucas.

As Duster spun rapidly and kicked everything within reach, flames came down and scorched some of the Escaryuba.

Suddenly several sharp blades shot past Duster's head and stuck in the trees as white energy surged forwards and blasted many of the banana-like aliens off their "feet." They were thrown into trees and some of the saplings simply broke apart from the force of it.

"They've got weapons!" shouted Paula as she used PK Fire and then several bursts of PK Freeze. Kumatora followed suit, and together they caused blasts of freezing cold air to shatter the ranks of alien soldiers.

A laser shot past King's head from where he snarled and snapped at the aliens. Ness spun like a top, crouching low to the ground and holding out his bat.

"There are too many!" Duster yelled.

"PK Starstorm!"

The Omega attack caused a rain of meteors and PSI energy which fell upon the Escaryuba. There were so many aliens and so many meteors and PSI-meteors that freqently a whole group of them was blasted by one meteor into another meteor.

"Who did that!" exclaimed Jeff. Boney had joined King, and they protected each other's backs as they fought.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING! USE PK SILVER!" screamed Ness as he was forced to twist around mid-flip to dodge a laser.

("What was I thinking!") said King to himself. ("PK Silver!")

BOOM.

There was a burst of energy like an explosion that threw more Escaryuba up into the air. Then silver energy like lightning began to surge through the air, forming a circular pattern. Something was materializing within the invisible border...more energy. It began to swirl and crackle and soon what seemed like a PSI hurricane was doing all the fighting for them.

"Di et och nietev!" screamed an Escaryuba.

"Cor!" screamed another.

They began to run.

"Och cor!" shouted Ness. The aliens turned and faced him.

"Det fer! Er retl freges? Och!" Escaryuba were now surging forwards toward him.

"What did you say!" screamed Paula.

"I pieced together their tones of voice because it sounds like our phrases and used those words! I guess I was right!" Ness yelled back, blasting the front aliens with PK Rockin' Beta.

"WHY!" Paula asked.

"Er..." Ness didn't have an answer for that question.

"So he could make sure they weren't alive to do any more evil, of course!" Jeff roared over the small explosion and rocket erupting from the end of his bazooka. The rocket crashed into the road near some Escaryuba and exploded violently.

Suddenly a yellowish-white blur streaked overhead. Where it had flown, the air froze and dropped like hail; sharp, piercing hail. A pancake-batter-like substance spurted onto Duster, Boney, King, Lucas, Kumatora (who had decided it would be more practical to use physical attacks as well as PSI), and Paula. Jeff was no real use when it came to close combat and thus stood back, launching explosives and setting up various weaponry.

"What is this stuff!" said Duster, shaking his good leg and throwing the substance onto the ground. There was no response, because nobody was listening. They were all too busy staring at the monstrosity that had emerged from the woods.

A giant banana.

It would have been funny if it hadn't had wrinkly skin patched with brown. It would have been funny if it hadn't had a mouth with two long fangs, two long fangs down which ran greenish saliva which sizzled as it hit the ground and bloodred eyes, with a black iris surrounded by a yellow ring and a yellow pupil.

It roared. Then it attacked.

"PK Rockin'!" "PK Love!"

Ness and Lucas had gotten the same idea. Being the ones who had fought alone at the start of their adventures-

("I fought alongside Lucas.")

Boney, shut up.

Being the ones who had fought alone or with only one other at the start of their adventure, they had developed the reflexes to immediately attack seemingly strong foes before the enemy could get the jump on them.

A voice thundered, "PK Lightstorm!" It sounded something like Lucas and Ness speaking at the same time.

"What's happenening!" screamed Jeff.

"Looks like they're combining!" yelled Kumatora.

The two PSI attacks seemed to have turned into one attack. A mixture of yellow, red, blue, and white light was now swirling in midair above the two.

It shot at the monster, peppering it with small meteorlike lights before swirling like a hurricane and piercing the beast with large thunderbolts leaping around inside of the light-hurricane. Then the hurricane began to extend vertically into some sort of giant light-tornado, until it covered the beast. More thunderbolts pierced the Escaryuba, then it was flung sky-high out of the tornado.

The giant alien was falling on its back. Just then, the tornado split into streaks of light which were apparently spinning-they were throwing sparks in a pinwheel pattern. The light streaks criscrossed and made a sort of grid, which the Escaryuba fell on. There was a burst of light and a roar of agony.

"PSI Shield!" shouted Kumatora. The light merely passed over their shields, although it was so powerful the shields ended up vanishing.

Ness walked over and examined the alien, picking up a stick.

"We should...er...find a place to stay..." said Paula uncertainly.

("Go to the hotel, then. Unless we get attacked by Animal Control again, I think we'll be safe with this hotel,") growled King.

This looks like it really is a banana, he thought.

"Diced banana, anyone?" he asked politely, stabbing a piece of banana.

* * *

CRASH.

A trash can fell over as a raccoon leapt out of it. It had been started by something. This "something" seemed to have its mouth full of large worms.

No...those were tentacles, hanging over the mouth.

"Arf! Arf! Grrrr..."

A dog behind the fence of a nearby house was barking and growling fearfully at the strange...thing.

For a moment, the thing considered killing the dog. One blow, and it would be over for the mutt. But...no, too much trouble. It was here tonight for a reason, and it wasn't going to let itself be distracted by a mere Canis Domesticus.

"You came."

The thing flexed a claw, but did not speak. It continued to glare at the figure that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

"I see you are reluctant to speak. We had a deal..." The strange figure stepped into a patch of silvery moonlight. It swung a tail back and forth, as if angry, then leaned head was rather catlike, with two small stumps at the back.

Still no words came from the creature with the tentacles hanging over its mouth. It merely stared back, showing no emotion.

"Have you forgotten the deal?"

The creature finally looked up and hissed.

"Of course I remember the deal. I was unable to do anything. The blonde boy and the boy in the red cap showed great power. I could not kidnap anyone-not even the dogs. They were all exerting too much power. The Escaryuba have not been much help. The silver dog alone could wipe out a platoon of them."

"Armed?"

"Yes, armed."

"They were the only hostile aliens I could find in this sector of the galaxy."

"They weren't hostile until you convinced them with false reasoning that the humans were out to get them. You remind me of something...While I have been..." It paused momentarily. "...sleeping...I have still seen many things. What you have done reminds me of what the Nazi group have done here on this planet. Yes, it was over sixty years ago. But they did the same thing. They took photographs of things and placed words on them, attempting to convince other nations with words and images that the Jewish were bad."

It paused again. "Obviously, that was false-the Jewish had not done anything to make the Nazis do what they did."

It was a mark of how emotionless the being was that it did not shudder.

"But we have convinced them. They are developing armor and shields as we speak! They are actually making an effort to protect themselves!" hissed the tailed figure, swishing its tail back and forth again.

"...That is true. But what will they get out of this?" The tentacle-faced creature let out a short growl and looked around. Wondering if it had seen anything, the tailed figure glanced around as well before responding to the question.

"A new planet. Usually it is much more difficult to conquer planets, since-"

"Since the other races have more army members, more lasers, and better men to wield them? One of these 'PSI' attacks is equal to hundreds of lasers! I have seen what a basic freezing PSI can do. It blasts back more than one Escaryuba! The fire is less powerful, but throws even more back. And the light-storm..." The tentacle-faced creature trailed off. It was not sorrowful, merely disappointed with how weak the Escaryuba seemed.

"Do you know who my brother was!"

An owl hooted in the distance, making the tailed figure's words slightly less threatening.

"I would say an amoeba, if only you were not multicellular."

"Fool! My brother was Giegue, also called Giygas! How can you not have known?"

"I focus more on...powerful entities."

"He was powerful! He could use PSI!"

"You do not...'catch my drift,' to use an Earth phrase. Entities that do not focus on weak humans," it growled.

The tailed figure paused.

"That was not the point of this meeting. The point of this meaning was to discuss if you had obtained the girl."

"Obviously, I have not!"

"Then this meeting was pointless."

"Not for me."

Another voice rang out through the darkness, causing the tailed figure to recoil. The tentacle-faced creature did not move, did not even breathe, hoping for a particular person to be accompanying this person to make this job much easier...

"I know what you've done now...but I can't warn them myself. I can't actually go near them."

The owner of this voice stepped out of the woods nearby. There was nobody with them.

"You!" snarled the tailed figure.

"Yes, me." The person smirked. "Expecting someone more...convenient, shall I say?"

"I would have hoped that, but things do not always go our way." The tentacle-faced creature had spoken. The person swept a lock of dark green hair out of their eyes.

"Since when has it been a 'we?' Have you two teamed up now?" he asked, drawing a flaming dagger from a sheath on his belt.

"We have a deal, as you have probably heard," replied the tailed figure.

"Ah, Gygath, you never cease to amaze me. Now you've made a 'deal'" -he made quotation marks in the air, still holding the flaming dagger in one hand- "with Rycoulth here."

"How do you know my name?" hissed Rycoulth, shrinking back with his mouth-tentacles flailing.

"Fan magazine," replied the strange human sarcastically. "Where I come from, your name is very well-known in the galactic community. You of all...bipedal intelligent reptillians would know. It's a bit of a shock to see you in this dimension." He began to toss the dagger in the air and catch it by the hilt.

Rycoulth did not reply.

The tailed figure, whose name was apparently Gygath, replied for him.

"It's a bit of a shock to see you anywhere, Nathan. I figured you'd be dead by now, with all the enemies you've made." His tail stopped moving and he held it high above his head like a club.

"I see you're using conjunctions now," said Nathan, sheathing the dagger and pulling a staff out of thin air. One end was flat, with a slit in it. The other end had four pieces of wood jutting out from the base, curving upwards like fangs. They were connected by a strip of wood that went around all four of them.

As the thinner parts of the staff were found and grasped by Nathan's hands, a sharp blade shot out of the slit in the flat end.

"But you know, I figured I'd have caught you by now. With all the enemies YOU'VE made, I figured that YOU'D be dead by now. You're so power-hungry, you got kicked off your own planet." Nathan smirked. A green orb materialized in the other end, in the middle of the four pieces of wood. "Anyway, at least my enemies are outlaws and things like that. Yours are the guys who are usually considered good by the inhabitants of the planet and possibly other races."

Gygath swung his tail forwards. Nathan rolled to the side as Rycoulth decided to back Gygath up and swiped downwards with a razor-sharp claw, slashing Nathan's leg.

"Like that hurt," grinned Nathan. There was a rip in his pants now, and the fabric around it was stained red. He dodged another set of attacks, using the time to wave a glowing hand over the wound. It healed, but this wasn't a PSI skill-it was a different brand of powers.

"Stand and fight!" hissed Rycoulth.

"You should talk-you've been flying around the galaxy for years!"

"At least I have more than three years of knowledge about space and time!" Rycoulth spat.

Nathan responded with a large blast of energy from the green orb at the end of the staff. It threw Rycoulth through seven trees, an old shack, and into a very thick concrete wall, which was part of a nearby dam.. There was a collossal thundering as the trees fell, the shack collapsed, and the concrete cracked.

"Who's there!" yelled a nearby person from a window.

"What happened?" shouted another.

Gygath glared angrily at Nathan before using a carefully controlled PSI Teleport Alpha to reach Rycoulth and drag him from the concrete wall and then a PSI Teleport Beta to escape the scene. Nathan merely smiled and pointed the staff at the broken trees, collapsed shack, and concrete wall, causing them to mend themselves. He then pointed the staff at the people who had seen him, Gygath, and Rycoulth, willing them to forget what had just happened (they shook their heads and walked back to their beds), then turned on the spot, vanishing with a bluish flash.

* * *

"Morning, Lucas," said Ness, noticing Lucas rise from the chair where he had fallen asleep.

"Mmph."

"Not a morning person, are you?" Ness asked.

"I'n nut a morming anuthing," he mumbled. "I'm eben typoinf."

Ness went into the bathroom and turned on the faucet. Then he gathered the pouring water into a spherical shape with telekinetics and went back into the hall. He splashed it on Lucas's face.

"Aah! ...Thanks, I needed that," grinned Lucas.

"PK...Starstorm..." muttered Kumatora suddenly.

Ness and Lucas froze, waiting to be crushed by meteors.

"I don't think PSI works if they mumble it in their sleep," said Ness.

"SKREEEEEEEEE-"

"Shut-UP! Gaah! Mystical Thief Tools, my eye!" shouted Duster, scrambling up from where he lay and seizing the shrieking beetle. He shoved it into a bag which Lucas recognized as the pack where he kept the Five or Seven Mystical Thief Tools. (It was not clear how many were in there; Wess had said five, Duster said seven, Kumatora said eight-she considered Duster's inability to not activate the Siren Beetle while sleeping a tool he always used) Apparently he had rolled over and caused the Siren Beetle to emit a shriek of alarm.

Kumatora fell off a bed with a THUNK.

"Can't you go one night without making that thing shriek!" she yelled.

Someone above thumped on the floor with a heavy object. Ness, knowing what was going to happen before it did, used a PSI Hypnosis aimed at the floor above.

"Why do you even have to take it out of the bag!"

"It's alive, isn't it?"

"No excuse, it al-"

"PK FLASH!" roared Lucas, leaping between them and holding out his hands. There was a blinding flash which caused Duster and Kumatora to suddenly stop arguing. They backed away from Lucas, tears pouring down their faces. Ness knew they could not control this; he had used it on Paula and Jeff in the hollow crate stack. The crate stack...

He remembered a dream he had had the night before that. (If you could really call it a night; it was always night in Threed.) Zombies had been chasing him, Paula, and Jeff (who had been replaced by King in reality) down a street and into an alleyway. In reality, that alleyway had been where they had temporarily evaded the zombies and found Jeff. Ness was not worried about that part...the alley had not really changed. But he was concerned about the crates...hadn't a hand pulled Ness, Paula, Jeff, and King into the crate stack in the dream?

It hadn't in real life...and for some reason, he knew he had seen that hand before somewhere. Ness suddenly realized something: He had known the stack of crates was hollow without actually knowing it...how was that possible? He realized another thing as well: His dreams and visions of places that were real...they came true, at least partially.

His thoughts were interrupted by Paula, who had finally woken (she had somehow slept through Duster's Siren Beetle, Kumatora's shouts, and Lucas's PSI attack) and walked over to him. Ness glanced over at Jeff and King, who were still asleep. He wondered if Poo's Brainshock ability could wake people up. Well...it couldn't hurt to try.

He looked at Jeff and focused on shocking his brain into waking up, and only that.

"Brainshock Alpha!" he whispered. Jeff stirred slightly, although that might have been because a spider was crawling across his face.

He continued to focus on Jeff, this time managing to forget about the dream. It happened, it's over, he told himself. No point in fussing over it, only fuss over new ones with stuff that hasn't happened yet...

Wake up...wake up...

"Brainshock Alpha!" he whispered again.

Ness had his left index and middle fingers on his forehead, his right index and middle fingers pointing at Jeff. Out of his two right fingers came a streak of red energy. It was small and flickered a bit, and it flew right at Jeff. Jeff stirred more, almost waking up.

WAKE UP!

"Brainshock Alpha!" he said.

A bolt of red energy struck Jeff and he shuddered a bit before leaping up.

"What was that!" he exclaimed. His yell woke up King, who grumbled a bit. He was hit by a less intense Brainshock and sprung right up.

Meanwhile, Duster and Kumatora were still arguing, both red in the face. Lucas was standing off to the side with the look of one who is tired of something happening and yet must stand by as it happens.

Just then something flew in the window. It was a small, Origami bird. Its wings actually fluttered and its head turned as it flew. In fact, it appeared to be alive. The paper bird fluttered over to Paula, and she opened her palm. The bird landed in it and unfolded itself, leaving Paula with a piece of paper in her hand as Lucas decided he was going back to bed. He flung himself onto it and his face landed on the pillow.

"It's a note!" said Ness, reading it over her shoulder.

"A warning, if you want to be more specific," said Jeff.

Paula read it aloud, since King and Lucas could not see it.

"It says, 'Paula, beware of being alone-I have overheard the planning of a potential kidnapping attempt, and you may be the target. Keep someone-preferrably a PSI user-with you at all times. Another, similar note has been sent to Kumatora-it should come as you read this.'"

As she finished reading the note, another bird flew to Kumatora. It landed on her head and unfolded itself. Duster stopped mid-sentence and plucked the warning note off of her head, then began to read it. They did not hear exactly what he was saying (although they knew already; it was probably the same as Paula's), because a real bird outside the window was now making it a target priority to sing as loudly as possible. After a moment, however, Kumatora turned around.

"Did you get one of these?" she asked loudly (the bird was still singing), waving the note at Paula.

Paula nodded.

"How am I the only one who has noticed that bird!" exclaimed Lucas, although it was muffled; he had not removed his face from the pillow. "It's really loud!"

("Shoo! Go somewhere else! We're doing more important stuff than you singing!") barked Boney, rushing to the window.

The bird glared reproachfully, its chest swelling.

("I should think keeping other male birds off my territory and attracting females with my loudest song is an important matter. In fact, I saw two beautiful white birds fly into this window. I would like to see them now, so give them back,") it said indignantly.

("THEY'RE MADE OF PAPER!") roared Boney, and with a tremendous effort he leaped out the window and into the tree, where he cuffed the bird repeatedly with his paw before launching himself off the trunk back into the window. The bird flew away, looking ruffled.

Kumatora looked out the window for a moment, then turned back to Paula.

"It says we should keep someone-'preferrably a PSI user'- by our sides at all times. Er...Lucas?"

"Whatever," came the muffled response.

Then Kumatora froze, scowling angrily. "Does that include sleeping? Cause I'm not sleeping with anyone. I want my own spot." She finished this remark by having her fingertips spout fire.

"I don't think so," said Jeff. "That would be awkward." In his mind he pictured everyone having to sleep in pairs. There were only two girls (seeing as there are more guys than girls) and two dogs. (A dog does not exactly count for a person when it comes to bedding arrangements-a lot of people sleep with their dogs in the same bed, go watch a movie about a dog and a kid if you think this is weird. Weirdo.)

"Thank goodness-" began Lucas.

"You're welcome," grinned Ness.

Lucas laughed, then continued, "Thank goodness for that, I'm only twelve."

"I thought you were thirteen," said Paula.

"No, I'm two months away from that. You think that the author would be more specific, but he just rounded it off to thirteen." He at the author, who was standing in a corner.

"Leave me alone. I'm writing a better story," said the author, scribbling down something in a notepad. Lucas grabbed it from him.

"No, you're not. This is chapter nine of THIS story."

"It's better than chapter eight."

"Hey! I get punched in the face!"

"Gimme that! That's a spoiler!" The author seized it and turned on the spot, vanishing with a flash.

There was a moment of silence, then Kumatora asked Paula, "Who are you going to pick as a personal bodyguard?" She laughed.

Paula laughed too, then looked at Ness, who grinned sheepishly.

BOOM!

There was a loud noise like thunder, followed by a flash. In that flash, a small ball flew into the window and landed on the floor.

"I think that booming noise was my stomach," muttered Ness. "I'm starving."

His stomach growled.

"No, that's far too quiet to be your stomach," said Paula.

"Well, I'm going to eat anyway. Coming?" he asked her.

Another rumbling noise came from King.

"I'm guessing you're hungry too?" asked Ness.

("The thought of food is repulsive at the moment. I managed to get out of here and stuffed myself on garbage last night-no food needed now,") replied King. There was another rumbling.

"Then what's that noise?" asked Jeff.

("I'm gonna burp.")

"I'm hungry too," declared Lucas. Then he turned to Kumatora. "But you have to come with me, seeing as there's this new PSI-using personal bodyguard stuff."

"Not coming," she said. "Not hungry."

"I'm not hungry either, and I'm not going downstairs, but I'm not talking like a caveman," said Paula, to general laughter.

Suddenly there was a crunching noise: Boney had been pacing when he had trodden on something, causing him to yelp loudly. Lucas rushed over to help him and pulled a small piece of plastic out of Boney's paw, then frowned.

"You might wanna see this," he announced. Duster and Jeff walked over.

It was a piece of machinery that could fit in a small plastic ball-which it was in. There were two holes in the ball, one on either side. Jeff broke the plastic apart, careful not to damage the machine.

"It looks like some kind of vacuum nozzle," remarked Duster. "But when I put my finger there, it's not doing anything...I don't feel hungry anymore, though..."

Jeff suddenly thought of something. He was hungry too. He put his finger in front of one of the small tubes on either side of the device, and suddenly he did not feel hungry. He also did not feel like leaving the room. Jeff removed his finger, and then he felt hungry again. He also felt like leaving the room for food.

"It seems like it's sapping my hunger and energy," he said, "but giving it back when I'm not in the way of its strange suction path. It seems to be curving through the room...judging by the fact that it's affecting Kumatora and Paula..." He trailed off.

Ness's mind was racing. "Did not feel like leaving the room..." He felt like leaving the room, but Paula didn't...if he left...wait a moment...

"Hey! What if the note was written just to scare us?" he exclaimed.

"That's stupid," said Kumatora. "Remember when Lucas got kidnapped?"

"Remember when I got kidnapped?" said Paula.

Ness did not speak for a moment. When he did, he said this:

"Well, what if that ball is sapping the energy and hunger of only you two? You don't feel like going downstairs. If we go downstairs, you'll be left alone up here. That means you'll be vulnerable..."

As his voice floated out of the window, a creature with tentacles above its mouth swore quietly in its own language and then slashed the air with its claw. A small rift appeared, and it jumped in, vanishing with the rift.

Later that day, the group decided to leave Twoson for Onett, just to see the sights.

"While we're here, we might as well look around the place," said Lucas. He was referring to Eagleland.

* * *

They weaved through the streets of Twoson for a one more day, pausing to look in the department store (Paula glanced around nervously even though she had been kidnapped in Fourside), the market (Duster seemed interested in the trading that was occuring and Lucas was fascinated by the ketchup on sale at the condiments stand; he also wondered what a cheeseburger was), Polestar Preschool (Paula greeted her parents warmly), and the Topolla Theater, which had been restored and was now a main attraction again. Numerous bands played there. During the concert they went to that night, somebody got drunk somehow and began to waltz with a chair to some rock music (Kumatora was the only one who did not surprise the other people at the concert due to her hair and attire).

Finally, the next day, they came to the dirt path leading back to Onett.

"I hope everything is alright,' said Ness. They followed the path, fighting off a few Ramblin' Mushrooms, and then went into the dark forest that served as a tunnel. Ness put his arm around Paula nervously; this path always made him jumpy. The group kept close together, and as the path expanded it began to rain.

"I don't remember this path expanding," said Paula.

"Huh," said Lucas. "This is getting peculiar..."

Then they found a house. Ness rushed to it and knocked on the door. A guy he had met before answered.

"Aren't you that kid who borrowed one of my exit mice?" he asked.

"Yeah," answered Ness. "What happened to this place?"

"My house isn't any different."

"I mean the path to Twoson."

"Oh...the whole path is dark all the time. I have to go into town to get some sunlight-all the country areas with only a few houses are dark. The two houses up on the hill there, the area around the library-"

But Ness had run off at "the two houses up on the hill."

The group followed him, where they found the town of Onett. It was a bit more modern than Twoson, and it had a city hall, a hospital, a drugstore, a Mach Pizza place...

Ness was standing on the edge of the darkness, looking into the sunlit town.

"It's moving," he said, pointing to the ground. "It's going to the center of the town."

The darkness was indeed creeping towards the center of town, although slowly.

("We should check if your mom and Tracy are alright,") said King.

"Good idea," agreed Ness.

They raced through town and came to a halt at a dirt path, where there was more darkness and rain.

"Up here," said Ness. They hiked up the path, which sloped upwards and curved left, finding snakes and dogs and crows. They fled from the group.

"They afraid of me," Ness explained. "It's some sort of chemical reaction-when they saw I had defeated the Sharks, they began to fear me."

Sharks...that stirred something in Paula's memory.

"The Rays!" she exclaimed.

"What?" asked Lucas.

"The Rays-a street gang. They attacked Ness and I, when we were trying to get Jeff into the hospital."

"Strange," said Jeff. "I don't remember there being any street gangs when we were last there."

"We had to find Doctor Andonuts after we saved you, I think. A decent adventure," said Ness from up ahead.

Jeff's eyes clouded with tears, and he looked at the ground. Ness realized what he had said; Doctor Andonuts was his father whom he had known for only a year or two. Just when things were getting better...the explosion had thrown him...from the lab...

Ness slowed down to let the others catch up with him.

"Sorry," he said to Jeff, who had passed him. "I didn't-"

"If I remember, it was King's fault, he pierced the spaceship-"

"It was nobody's fault," said Duster suddenly. Apparently he had been listening. "The Escaryuba chose to attack. They don't care who they kill. We've saved more lives than we've lost by destroying one of their ships. We've saved more lives than we've lost by fighting the Escaryuba, when nobody else is."

Jeff was a bit shocked, but he realized what Duster said was true.

"I've lost parents, too..." said Kumatora. "They died when I was a baby. Then I was raised by a bunch of men...er...women...Magypsies, they're called, I dunno if they're male or female." She paused. "I had to watch them vanish when the Needles were pulled. I mean, if it was for the good of the world...but still..." She trailed off, looking upset. Duster walked ahead with her, leaving Ness and Jeff to their conversation. But they had both decided the conversation was over, and continued walking.

Finally, a house came into view through the rain and darkness.

"PSI Shield...PK Fire," whispered Paula, creating a shield around her hand (to block the rain) and then lighting a fire in her palm so they could see better.

"That's my house, all right," said Ness. He rushed to the door and knocked hurriedly. King surveyed the area fondly, as if he were remembering something.

"Who is it?" called a voice.

"It's me, Ness!"

The door opened as he finished the last "s" of his name and a woman who was, they were sure, Ness's mother. She hugged him and kissed him and fussed over his appearance and the fact that she was very worried until-

"Arf!"

"Another dog?" asked Ness. King walked out from behind him, growling softly.

"We thought King had ran away-"

("-Technically, I did-")

"-and Tracy was getting kind of lonely without you and King, so we got another dog to compensate for King, at least."

("I dunno what 'compensate' means, but I know I've been replaced.")

"King thinks you've replaced him, Mom," Ness told his mother.

Behind him, Lucas looked around warily.

"What are you looking for?" asked Kumatora, also looking around.

"Zombies. They were in that Threed place-" began Lucas, but Jeff cut him off.

"Eh, they've always been there," said Jeff.

They went inside and for some reason the couch had been coated in plastic, and so had...just about everything.

"Uhh...what?" said Paula. "Last time I was here, I distinctly remember the house NOT being plastic-wrapped. Ugh, this looks like a Glad Cling-Wrap advertisement." Lucas and Duster laughed. Ness, King, Boney, and Kumatora were too busy trying to unstick their shoes from the floor.

"Why did you do this, Mom!" exclaimed Ness.

"Rosie...er...makes...messes," she whispered. Rosie, they assumed, was the Cocker Spaniel that Tracy now owned, and the Cocker Spaniel that was walking across the floor to a corner of plastic wrap that looked especially messy. Now that their eyes had adjusted to the light, everything was rather filthy.

"Train it, then!" said Lucas. Ness's mother looked at him with a slight scowl, then turned away. "I trained Boney, he would never-"

"Friends of yours, dear?" Ness's mother interrupted.

"Uh...yeah," replied Ness. "I think we'll just go upstairs now." Then he added in an undertone, "I don't think the dog can get up there, there's a gate at the bottom of the stairs."

They trudged across the Cling-Wrap, which was sticky (hence the name) and gave the feeling of walking through a swamp. The occasional mouse took advantage of the space underneath the wrap, and ran around on the floor underneath their feet. Finally they reached the gate and opened it. Rosie attempted to get through, but King and Boney whipped around and snarled at her until the others had gotten through. They managed to shut the gate and left Rosie at the bottom, on the plastic wrap.

"Good, no Cling-Wrap," said Jeff, almost falling over (the Cling-Wrap was uneven to walk on and confused the walker for several minutes afterwards.)

"Here, just come in my-" began Ness, walking towards the end of the hall, but before he could, his ten-year-old sister Tracy burst out of her room and began talking animatedly to anyone who would listen. Lucas found it slightly amusing, while Kumatora found it irksome. King responded happily (she was always nice to him) but Boney flipped out slightly.

"Not so shy now, is she?" Paula asked Ness, smirking. Ness laughed. She had been much more shy when Paula had last been over here. Jeff managed to escape and grinned at Ness, although it was rather pained. Ness supposed he was still upset about earlier. The three of them leaned against the wall and watched Tracy bothering the others for a minute, then sneaked into Ness's room.

Jeff sank into a beanbag chair in the corner, while Ness took a seat at his desk and spun around in the chair to face them. Paula sat on the bed.

"Wonder how long they'll be?" said Ness. Suddenly Boney stumbled into the room, followed by Kumatora.

"What are you trying to do here!" she spluttered, doubled over. "Talk us to death?"

"I wanted to check on my family, that's all," said Ness.

"Pokey!" exclaimed Jeff suddenly. "His house!"

"Pokey!" screamed Kumatora, leaping right up. Her eyes were glowing yellow-an indicator that a PK Starstorm attack was ready. "Do you mean Porky!"

"Uhhh...he was fat, so he might have been called Porky elsewhere," said Ness bluntly. Paula scowled at him, but then remembered what Pokey had done and did not blame Ness for the insult.

"Some git called Porky created this 'New Pork City' place-it got blown up eventually-but he also made a Pigmask Army, which were fat guys in pig masks and uniforms in different colors, depending on their rank.

"They did horrible things to animals-replaced parts of them with mechanical parts, created artificial animals by sewing part of an animal to part of another and doing other stuff. They even cut off a rhino's head and put it on a rocket, and replaced part of a Drago-that's a thing that looks like a T-Rex or whatever they're called but they're friendly herbivores-with mechanical parts.

"Its brain got messed up and it killed Lucas's mother and brother. Then the Pigmasks took his brother's dead body, replaced parts of him with mechanical parts, and then brought him back to life and used him as the ultimate warrior."

Silence followed this short speech, so Kumatora continued.

"They've done sick things, and all because of Porky. They almost destroyed Lucas's house with lightning and lit the Sunshine Forest on fire, and also destroyed Lucas's grandfather's house to make way for some sort of museum thing."

She froze.

"What if...we could transport ourselves through time? We could go back and stop-"

"No!" interjected Jeff. "That would severely change the past and future! We must let it be. Do things in the present."

Lucas, King, and Duster finally managed to get in and shut the door, locking it.

"We were just discussing-" began Kumatora, but there was a loud ripping noise, coupled with something that was like an explosion.

"Why the hell can't we just talk? Why does something always explode!" exclaimed Lucas as they were suddenly blasted into the wall on either side of the door. There was an orange flash and some shouting, and suddenly they felt themselves being pulled towards the window.

It was all over in a split second. They caught a glimpse of a reptillian creature and a green-haired person fighting over something, and suddenly there was an explosion and the reptillian thing flew over the cliff edge, and there was an orange thing floating in the air and they were sucked into it, and the green-haired person went after them...

"Waaaah!" yelled Lucas as they were sucked into blackness.

* * *

- I decided on an abrupt end to the chapter. There have been decent endings so far, and what happens next compensates for this bad, abrupt one.

I DO NOT OWN GLAD(R) CLING-WRAP.

PLEASE REVIEW! I would like some feedback on my story, whether good or bad.


	9. The Nowhere Islands

Chapter 9: The Nowhere Islands

You know what's coming.

* * *

The air was sweet, and the ground felt soft.

But for some reason the sky seemed to be masked by giant flowers...or was he just small?

Neither. The flowers were large, but apparently he was lying down.

How strange. Why was he lying down in a field full of flowers?

Someone was walking now...who was it?

The flowers parted over the teen's head and someone he didn't know was leaning over him.

"Get up, get up!" he hissed, and pulled the teenager to his feet.

"Wha...what? Where am I? ...Who am I?" asked the teen.

"Huh. Classic case of memory loss after portal travel." The stranger shook his head. Only the Hummingbird Egg can cure it...at least in this dimension. In other dimensions, on other worlds, there are different things. But here...apparently..."

A girl with blonde hair sat up from the flowers suddenly. The teen did not recognize her, but called her anyway.

"Hey!" he said.

"Oh, hello, Ness," she answered. "Er...where are we?"

So that was his name. Ness.

"Can you remember his name, then?" the stranger asked. Ness turned around and saw another person. He did not recognize this person either.

"Over here!" he called.

The guy limped over to them and suddenly the small pack he was carrying began to glow. He reached into it and pulled out a small white object, in the shape of an egg. Red, glowing lines in intricate patterns marked the surface, and on it was a tiny pair of glowing, blue-white wings.

"What is that?" asked the stranger.

"It's something called the 'Hummingbird-'" began the guy.

The stranger seized it and then handed it to Ness, who reluctantly took it and instantly felt his memories returning. Of course. Paula and Duster were next to him, that was who these people were. He had just suffered a case of memory loss. After...portal travel, though?

"What do you mean by 'portal'?" asked Ness.

The stranger did not talk for a moment. When he did, it was obvious he thought it was a basic fact of life.

"Portal. You know, time travel, dimensional travel, space travel..." He waved his hands in the air. "Circular, glowing thing that transports people places?"

"Oh." He had not been sure. "Who are you, anyway?"

"The name's Nathan," he said. When Ness's face remained blank, he pulled out a piece of paper and made it fold itself into an Origami bird, which fluttered to Ness's outstretched hand and unfolded itself.

"I sent the warnings," read the note.

"You?" said Ness, bewildered.

Nathan smiled. "Aye."

"Wait a moment...we've seen you!" exclaimed Ness. "You cursed at a ghost and yelled some nonsense word before you looked in the doorway at us...in that old theater..."

Ness remembered it vividly, because green hair was hard to forget, along with those flashes and the way he had just vanished. That scene had also been what caused Paula to confess her affections for him, and that kind of stuck in his memory as well. A clich , he decided, was like melted cheese.

Nathan's voice drew Ness out of his thoughts because of the absurdity of what he was saying.

"But the reason I couldn't go near you four is because of a deal that took effect when we were in the past. Of course, I could do this now-" he put his arm around Paula's shoulders and Ness felt a spur of jealousy "-because it's the future."

"But where are we?" asked Kumatora, who had apparently come to while Nathan was talking.

"You'll see." He grinned, then leapt off the edge of the strange cliff where they were.

"Whaa!" Ness, Paula, and Duster ran the to the edge, to see something immense zooming back up the cliff wall. They pulled their heads back as a wyvern shot up past the edge and then flew back down, landing on a patch of sunflowers and flattening them. Nathan got off its back.

"My wyvern," he said, gesturing to it. "Arcturus." Arcturus the wyvern blasted fire into the air.

"What's the difference between a wyvern and a dragon?" asked Duster.

"They're the same thing, but I like to think a wyvern is a bit smaller, different in appearance-a little more serpentine-and easier to ride. They're also a bit friendlier, making them easier to tame."

("Hello,") said Arcturus.

"Hello," replied Ness, Paula, and Kumatora. Duster did not respond, because he could not understand what animals said.

"Hello, Nathan," hissed a voice.

Nathan whipped around and drew a staff from thin air. (Described earlier, in chapter 8.) "You again!" he shouted.

"PK Thunder!"

A bolt of lightning struck Nathan-or so they thought. When they had opened their eyes, he was holding a brightly colored, crackling ball. He had somehow caught the lightning, and now threw it back.

"Grr...PK Freeze!"

This time, a blast of frozen air shot upwards and threw Nathan backwards, into a backflip. He landed on his feet, slightly blue-tinged from the cold.

A figure vaulted over the cliff edge that caused Ness and Paula to gasp in fear. Behind them, rustling told them that some of the others had come to.

This figure had a catlike face, with two stump-like protrusions on the back of the head. A small tube apart from the neck connected the head to the body, and it had a long tail that it was swishing back and forth. (Really, it looked like a Mewtwo.) While it had been vague what Giygas really looked like, they suspected from the form inside the Devil's Machine before it displayed Ness's face that Giygas looked something like this. For some reason, this condensed form had turned into a strange thing that was somehow alive but not alive. It was energy.

"Gygath! How did you get here?" asked Nathan through gritted teeth.

Arcturus glided over to them.

("Get on my back, quickly! I'll take you away from here!") he said urgently.

"What about Nathan?" asked Ness.

("He can fly without me-you'll find out how later. Hurry!")

Lucas, Jeff, and the two dogs had to be dragged onto his back, but Arcturus managed to take off, dodging PK Thunder attacks and giving Nathan time to lunge quickly with a flaming dagger. They soared down...down...across a farm...across a river..and a forest...

"Dad!" shouted Lucas, who now seemed to be wide-awake.

A man with a brown hat was herding sheep. Ness assumed this was where Lucas lived. They soared down and came to a halt in the field, Arcturus folding his wings.

"Lucas!" exclaimed the man. They hugged, and Ness felt a pang of sadness. How would he, Paula, Jeff, and King get home?

The man looked around. "Er...friends of yours?" He indicated Ness, Paula, Jeff, and King.

"Uh...yeah," said Lucas.

("Liar,") said Boney.

("Shut up,") snarled King.

("Make me.")

("You immature...") King started glowing silver and took a step towards Boney.

Lucas kicked Boney, causing him to stumble.

"Shut up," he muttered, so that his dad wouldn't hear. "Ness, Paula, Jeff, King...this is my dad, Flint."

"Nice to meet you." Ness, Paula and Jeff reached out in turn and shook his hand. Flint had to kneel down before shaking King's paw.

"So...where are we?" asked Jeff.

"Just south of Tazmily Village," replied Flint, although confused. "Why?"

"They're new," lied Duster quickly.

"From where?"

"Confusibumblydoobuland," Ness answered tonelessly.

"Uh...okay."

"An awful lot of ellipses, I notice," said Jeff, looking at the above text.

"What are you looking at?" asked Paula.

"Nothing."

"Here, let's go inside," said Lucas hurriedly, and they walked up a natural ramp onto something similar to a plateau. A one-story house was here, although it was large. Next to it, a built-in doghouse with a comfy pillow and a bone in it, and next to that a pen with three sheep in it. One of them was black and had no wool.

("I got in the way of the lightning,") it explained. Ness remembered what Kumatora had said earlier.

"'They almost destroyed Lucas's house with lightning...' Kumatora, is this what you meant? They actually used a lightning strike?" he asked.

"Yeah," replied Kumatora. "They had some giant lightning gun on top of this thing called Thunder Tower. It got blown up eventually, I think, but before it did they fired lightning at the home of anyone who disagreed with them. And it didn't matter if they missed, because they didn't care how many people died."

"Kumatora," said Duster suddenly. "I don't think it exploded. I think...if we could go back there...we could use that gun to help us fight whatever's out there."

Lucas came out of the house with tears streaming down his face.

"Wha-what's the matter?" asked Ness, surprised. Kumatora and Duster looked sympathetic.

"Didn't I tell you? That Drago killed his mom and brother," said Kumatora.

"I-I'm sorry," stuttered Lucas. "It's...it's just that...s-sometimes I look at that b-bit of fabric f-from Mom's dress, and C-Claus's shoe..." He trailed off, still in tears.

Lucas beckoned them back inside, and the rest of the afternoon was spent around Lucas's house. Lucas told them all about his adventure here in this place, called the Nowhere Islands. He explained how he had been having fun up in his grandfather's mountain home a little over three years ago, with Claus and his grandfather Alec. The name Alec stirred something in Ness's memory, but he had no idea why. He had never known anyone named Alec.

Apparently, they were scheduled to go home that night, but as they walked back down through the forest Hinawa had made the twins hide in a tree. She had then went somewhere else, and they never saw her again. Lucas said he knew she was going to look for somewhere else to hide. There had been a small cave nearby, but the Mecha-Drago had caught up to her and killed her before she could get there. It tore up a chunk of mountain, too, so that a different, more dangerous path had to be used to reach Alec's house.

Boney took up the story now, telling of how Flint had ran out into the flaming Sunshine Forest with Thomas to save Lighter's son Fuel. He had bashed down the door and defeated a Winged Mouse, and then they ran out of the forest, where a hurt Lighter was lying on a makeshift bed surrounded by the townspeople. Boney then said it had started to rain, and they had decided to search for Hinawa and the twins because they should have been home by now. Boney himself had then come to Flint's aid to help search for Hinawa, and eventually they met old man Wess at the sheer rock face that, if scaled, formerly provided access to Alec's cabin. The Mecha-Drago had torn the rock bridge away. Wess had said that his son could scale this wall, and Boney had had an epic cameo as he charged through the stormy night to fetch Duster.

Now, at a cue from Kumatora, Duster began talking. He explained how Boney had dragged him all the way there, where Wess woke him up and explained the situation rather harshly. Then he, Flint and Boney had scaled the wall using Wall Staples. They found a Reconstructed Caribou and defeated it, then looked around in the small cave where Lucas said he thought Hinawa might have been heading for. It was full of Mishevious Moles, which Duster, Flint and Boney had had to defeat to get their items back. Finally, they had found a scrap of Hinawa's dress and claw marks in the cliff, and when they returned to the forest the twins had washed up on the shore.

Lucas resumed speaking, telling how he and Claus had managed to get out of the tree trunk as it fell, the Mecha-Drago's tail having knocked it over. They simply floated down the river until some people had pulled them out. They were placed in front of a fire, shielded from the rain, and then Flint had been given the news of Hinawa's death.

Kumatora spoke now, because Lucas was tearing up again. She said, from what she had been told, that Flint had grabbed a flaming bit of wood and swished it through the air. It was extinguished, but he knocked out three people. Finally, Lighter had hit him from behind and knocked him out. Flint had been put in jail, but Claus had given him an apple with a nail file in it. Flint had used the nail file to unlock the door and met Duster outside, who had given sympathy. Meanwhile, Claus had taken Flint's homemade knife and went to kill the Mecha-Drago.

Duster started talking again. While everyone was mourning Hinawa's death, Lucas had not been able to keep a secret and let slip to Flint where Claus had gone. Flint was forced to go and obtain a Drago Fang knife from somebody, and then had to meet the Magypsies. They were apparently friends of Alec's. Alec had brought him there, saying he knew the way to Drago Plateau.

Boney then took up the story. The Magypsies explained that Claus had indeed come that way, and they went through the cave to the top of the plateau, where they met the Mecha-Drago. Flint had used a piece of lumber he had found plus the Drago Fang knife to defeat the Mecha-Drago in a battle. But it had already killed Claus, and Alec had persuaded Flint not to make the Mecha-Drago's baby (for the Mecha-Drago was a female) just like Lucas, with only a father left for family. Flint had not killed the Mecha-Drago, and instead it was returned to normal.

"That's...terrible," said Ness.

The rest of the adventure was told, and nobody spoke for a while afterwards. Finally, Lucas offered a tour, which was accepted.

They looked around at the town, which was admittedly much more rural than it had been in the story. Apparently the Dark Dragon had restored the village to normal.

The inn was nice and friendly, and there was even a shop, although it did not use money.

"There's a bartering system," explained Duster, picking up a purple object with legs. He put down a sack of pine nuts in return, and they left.

As the group walked around, Ness, Paula, Jeff and King drew many curious glances. They knew that the village had not seen them before, and certainly none of them had ever seen anything like Jeff's laser, which was sticking out of his pocket.

"I don't think everybody remembers what technology was," whispered Duster.

WEEEEEEEEEET! WEEEEEEEEET!

A strange noise was sounding from somewhere in the village.

"Aw, what now?" complained Kumatora.

"How about a Cattlesnake?" said Lucas politely, causing Kumatora, Duster and Boney to whirl around rapidly and see that he was not lying. The chimera crashed into a nearby building and was followed by several others.

Immediately, Duster threw several Wall Staples. They pinned the creature that had hit the building to another building as Kumatora shouted "PK Fire!" Flame streamed from her fingertips and bowled two Cattlesnake over. Duster ran up and delivered a torpedo kick to another Cattlesnake, causing it to fly through the air and land in a tree. Boney snapped at their heels, surprising them and causing them to topple. Lucas bashed them with a yo-yo and a bat. He managed to wrap the yo-yo around one and flip it over as he hit another one. A PK Freeze from Kumatora, and they were all defeated. Except...

"What is that!" screamed Lucas, diving out of the way of a large creature that looked like a Cattlesnake made from two stronger, more deadly animals. It was made from a bull, a cobra, and...

"It's a biological and mechanical chimera!" yelled Kumatora, dodging a missile from a launcher attached to the creature's side. There was another on the opposite side, and the next missile almost hit Boney. Suddenly something swooped low over the houses and snatched the creature up in its talons.

"Miss me?" shouted a voice from atop the wyvern they recognized as Arcturus. The creature was firing missiles everywhere, so Arcturus whirled around mid-flight and threw it as hard as he could. It flew fifty feet into the air, where a green bolt of energy hit it and there was a burst of energy. The creature fell to the ground, landed on its feet, and ran away looking as if it had been in a toaster.

Arcturus flew down and landed in the middle of town, earning gasps from the townspeople. Nathan dismounted from his wyvern and grinned at them.

"That was easy compared to what I'm used to," he said.

"What are you used to?" asked Jeff.

"Hordes of angry aliens with powerful laser technology, evil warlocks with armies of minions at their command, that sort of thing."

One of the Cattlesnake got up and attempted to ram Nathan.

"Flagrantis!" he said forcefully. A jet of flame issued from his palm and wound itself, snakelike, around the Cattlesnake. It stopped mid-charge and looked around.

"What did you just say?" asked Ness.

"Er..."

BOOM!

A bolt of lightning roared down from the sky and almost hit Paula, but Ness and Jeff pulled her out of the way.

BOOM!

A second bolt, and this time they were aiming for Ness-

"No need to worry."

Nathan had simply reached out above Ness's head and somehow caught the lightning. It was now crackling in a ball in his hand. He then threw it into the ground, where it fizzled out.

"How did you-?" began Kumatora, but Nathan just shook his head.

"I'll tell you eventually. Right now there are more important matters to attend to. Now, Thund-"

BOOM!

A third bolt of lightning, but Nathan waved a hand almost lazily and it bounced off the shield he had created, soaring high into the air and exploding.

"Thunder Tower was destroyed."

This was met by silence. Duster frowned; he had hoped to use it against whatever was out there.

"But, as you can see, something has restored it. Do you know what that something is?"

The group shook their heads.

"Do you remember the warnings?"

"They might have been fake," argued Kumatora.

Nathan pointed straight up and his fingertip began to glow. He drew a simple rune in the air, and in the center of the rune appeared a simple piece of paper. He folded it quickly into an Origami bird and muttered something. It came to life and began to flutter around their heads, and Nathan muttered something else. It landed on Kumatora's head and unfolded, and she plucked it off her head and read it.

"They weren't," it read.

"That something is what's mentioned in the warning."

This was met by more silence.

"This thing is powerful. It's no match for me and Navenstrae here"-he pulled out the staff-"but for you guys it's going to be tough. You can probably figure out who and what brought you here by yourselves-"

"Portal," said Ness suddenly. "You told me about the memory loss thing."

"Yeah, that's right."

"Did that thing bring us here, then?" asked Paula.

"'That thing' has a name. Call it Rycoulth," said Nathan.

"Did this Rycoulth person...thing bring us here?"

"Sort of. It tried and its attempt worked," replied Nathan.

"Doesn't it have a gender?" asked Duster.

"Most think of it as male," answered Nathan, "and it likes to think of itself as male, but the truth is it has no gender. But you can call it 'he' if you wish."

"I think we might be able to figure it out, then," said Lucas.

("Figure out what, exactly?") asked Boney.

"Who or what shot that lightning at us. It was Rycoulth or whatever his name was."

"It shot that at us...because it wanted to eliminate Paula, maybe go for Kumatora instead, and when that didn't work Rycoulth tried to get rid of me so we couldn't interfere, and then the third lightningbolt might have been aiming for Nathan," said Ness, pausing for a few seconds after every comma.

"Couldn't have put it better myself," laughed Nathan. "Exactly. That's why-Romperis!"

A chunk of metal had just shot at Nathan's head out of nowhere. As the spell hit it the metal broke apart into small pieces which landed with a clatter on the ground.

"Come on! If we linger here we're just endangering the townspeople!" said Nathan hurriedly. They sprinted out of town and they could tell something was following them. Just then a long pole with a giant pickaxe on the other end appeared and pulled whatever was pursuing them through the air and in front of them. The group skidded to a halt and before anything else could be done Kumatora shouted "PK Ground!"

There was an earthquake and a fissure opened up in the earth. It was not a wide fissure, but the blue Clayman with ferns growing out of it and enhanced by metal parts from the dump toppled and began rolling around on the ground. It was peppered by lasers from Jeff and hit in the middle with a bat by Lucas. The lasers caused its metal parts to explode and the bat split its physical body apart. It was defeated.

Just then the world began to fade, at least in Ness's eyes.

"Ness!" said Lucas. They moved to his side and suddenly he fell over. Only Nathan remained stationary, thinking hard. He had his suspicions about what was happening.

Meanwhile, Ness was seeing something...again.

* * *

At first, it was dark. Dark and wet.

"Eeeek! Eee-AAAAUUURRRGGGHH!"

A flash of lightning illuminated purple blood on the alley wall; the assailant had been hit with something. A low moaning noise was audible even over the clatter of rain. Then a woman's voice spoke out over the moans and rain, high and cold.

"Kill her. And the man."

More screams came, but nothing was seen. No lightning rent the air-only more screams and a gurgling noise.

It was hard to tell when the vision faded, but another one came.

It was slightly brighter, and in the distance the sun peeked through a cloud. Zombies were trudging along a long, dark path. A lone house was the only sign of civilization.

With a jolt Ness realized the zombies were heading for Onett.

The vision ended.

* * *

"Visions, eh?" asked Nathan.

"Yeah, how'd you-" began Ness hurriedly.

Nathan glanced sideways at the group.

"Well, my hometown is in danger. From zombies," said Ness.

"Anything else?"

"Well, yeah. A lady and a guy got attacked in someplace I think is Threed-"

"Only that one was true, you know," said Nathan.

"How can that be? They've always been correct!"

"That's a rare skill you have. But I've done a fair amount of research on it. A powerful spell-"

"Spell? Like magic?" interrupted Kumatora.

"Of course," replied Nathan irritably.

"Is that even possible?" she asked.

"Yes!" came the answer.

"I should start studying that stuff. Maybe then I'll be equal to you guys on the powers scale," said Duster.

"Alpha and Beta PSI attacks are equal to the weaker spells. Gamma is equal to normal ones, and Omega is equal to the powerful ones. However, magic has much more potential. You can break things apart, light things on fire, freeze stuff, electrocute it, poison things, cause explosions, throw stuff through trees, disintegrate things, seperate chemical compounds, create things, vanish things, and much more," explained Nathan hurriedly. "Now, about Ness's visions-how long have you been seeing these?"

"Er...since recently," said Ness, dazed by the rapid flow of information.

"Hmm..." Nathan did not speak for a moment. "You know...this is strange...I've never heard of anyone out of this dimension having that power."

"Out of this dimension?" asked Duster.

"Yeah. I'm from Dimension D."

"North America! Europe! Antarctica!" shouted Lucas suddenly. "I know!"

Nathan whirled around, the strange cape he was wearing flying through the air.

"How do you know?" he asked urgently.

"I...dunno...it just sorta...came to me," said Lucas, and they knew he was telling the truth.

"Are you two related?" asked Nathan, looking from Ness to Lucas.

"Uh...I don't know," said Ness.

"We're from different time periods, we might be," said Lucas.

As soon as he said this, Nathan's eyes widened, and he turned away, muttering. They caught bits of what he was saying.

"Of course...makes sense...but how?...really...possible...yes..."

Then he turned around, grinning, and held up his left arm, which, they noticed, was biomechanical. Kumatora frowned.

"A biomechanical arm?" she said.

"Yes, I know what you're thinking." He scowled, but then grinned again. "I guess I'm sort of a chimera myself."

Kumatora was left speechless, slightly confused.

"Uh...what was I going to do? Oh, yeah!" Nathan pressed a small button on his arm and a small chamber opened up. Out of it flew a folded-up piece of paper, which he caught.

"What's that?" asked Lucas.

"Look at it. Ness, you too. I daresay it will be...interesting."

As they read over the paper, Nathan explained why the second vision would be false.

"It's not possible to have two consecutive visions without fading back to the real world. False visions can be induced by machines, but even if the operators time it so that you do regain consciousness you won't experience that tingling sense." Ness knew what he was talking about; a strange tingling sensation was present when fading out of consciousness. Also, you sometimes wake up with a nosebleed from the machine-induced visions, since they cause vibrations in your head that might shake things...loose."

Ness and Lucas gasped audibly.

"He didn't say anything remarkable," said Jeff.

"No-this!" said Ness, and he shoved it under Jeff's nose.

It looked like a family tree, except it had multiple people that were completely unrelated. If you were to draw a straight line through Lucas's name and keep going, you'd also draw a line through Kumatora's and three other people, excluding "Claus," who was Lucas's late brother. They had no relation whatsoever.

"Interesting," said Jeff. "Very interesting." He traced through Lucas's ancestry, and with a jolt he found the name "Ness" above the name "Alec." Someone else's name (he didn't notice who) was connected by a line labeled "Marriage" to Ness's, and a vertical line descending from the center of that line led to the name "Alec." His name was connected to another, and they had a child called Hinawa. She had grown up and married a man named Flint and had two sons called...

"Lucas and Claus," muttered Jeff.

"We're somehow related. Strange," said Lucas.

"I was hoping my family would go "extinct in the male line" so that future descendants of my family would have a last name. I mean, seriously-whose idea was it to marry a guy with no last name!" shouted Ness.

Later, the group was headed for Thunder Tower. They took the train and then went north to the forest. Then they went east, trying to find the path to Thunder Tower. The problem was not that it couldn't be seen, it was that it couldn't be reached.

"I told you it didn't get blown up," said Duster to Kumatora.

"Eh," she replied.

"You don't like being wrong, do you?" he asked.

"Of course not! You think I like getting things wrong!"

"Jeez...sorry." Duster walked over to join Boney and Jeff, leaving Kumatora walking separated from the rest of the group.

Up in front, Lucas was leading them, something he did not frequently do. For all his courage in dangerous situations and his ability to keep calm in a catastrophe, he was kind of shy at other times. This time he was looking around nervously.

Strangely enough, the forest was rather quiet.

At least that's what Lucas was thinking when this happened:

No fewer than thirty Parental Kangasharks came charging out of the trees and charged them.

"PK Flash!" shouted Ness. The Omega Flash caused some to start crying uncontrollably, some to feel strange, and a few others to just be defeated on the spot. They all stopped moving, however.

"PK Fire!" cried Paula, blasting it over the creatures.

Kumatora was forced to use a shield as several of them decided to attack her. King and Duster came to her aid, while Jeff fired lasers and missiles from afar. These projectiles seemed to be very effective, and the Kangasharks scattered as they realized that it was hopeless, and Kumatora sent them off with a few more burns.

BOOM!

A bolt of lightning roared down from the sky for the fourth time that day and this time it threw Jeff, Boney and Paula into the air. They crashed to the ground and lay there, stunned. The rest of them were standing there in shock when-

"Stonefetr!"

BOOM!

This time they managed to dodge the lightning, mostly because this time the aim was off. A large column of rock was also coming out of the ground and growing in a spiral pattern, looking somewhat like a giant gray bundle of tree trunks. Nathan began to mutter things quickly under his breath, and now the rock began to glow. It spread over Thunder Tower silently and covered all possible exits and kept glowing.

"I don't think it knows I know how to do that," said Nathan. "It obviously didn't, because I wouldn't have been able to do that.

"Why didn't you cover the gun?" asked Duster.

"It's put protection on the gun. I can't do anything. Plus, if I did cover the gun, the next bolt of lightning would bounce off of the rock-see how it's glowing?-and probably short-circuit the whole place. It would know something's wrong then, but for now we can't do anything," replied Nathan.

"So what do we do once we get in?" asked Paula, pulling herself up off the ground; none of them had actually been hit by the lightning. It had just thrown them.

"We fight," replied Nathan, grimacing.

They followed the path around a bend and then wandered around for a while. All that was found was a series of large holes in the ground and a large underground maze. Finally Duster remembered the correct one and they jumped down. They followed the underground path and found a dark tunnel.

"Well, go on. We didn't dig this for the heck of it," said the mole next to the dark tunnel. It had a hard hat and a shovel, reminding Ness of the mole near Onett that gave hints about various things, but never about where to go next in his adventure. He was pretty sure there were others like it somewhere.

"Why did you dig it?" asked Duster, scowling.

"To confuse people," grinned the mole.

"What's in here?" asked Paula.

"An upward sloping path," replied Kumatora dully. "C'mon."

They followed and kept going. They followed another bend in the path and finally, after some wandering, they found themselves at Thunder Tower. The entrance was normally boarded up, but there was a lot of splintered wood lying around that hinted at the fact that something had entered anyway.

"Well," said Nathan. "This is it. Let's go."

He waved a hand, and the doorway reappeared. They went through, Nathan going last and resealing the door.

-  
PLEASE REVIEW! I would like some feedback on this story! Nobody has reviewed anything other than chapters 1 and 3, and only one review for those chapters.

OCs are fun sometimes, because you don't have to stick to a trait set by someone other than you.

If you think I'm going too far with this weird magic stuff, don't worry, there won't be much more OC stuff.


	10. PSI and Swords

Chapter 10: PSI and Swords

A battle featuring three OCs! More storyline!

I know Æ is Latin. Don't get mad.

* * *

("Can't you do anything about this? Can't you get out?") The voice popped up quite suddenly in Rycoulth's head. It was Gygath.

("It would require some complex dark m-they're coming. I can sense it. I must flee.")

There was a flash of darkness (the opposite of a flash of light in a dark room, a flash of dark in a light room) but Rycoulth was thrown back from the wall

("I cannot flee. It seems there is a certain...shall we say...enchantment on the walls?")

("Preposterus! We have done everything we know of to prevent them teleporting to you and to stop them from cursing the walls so you cannot escape or do anything!") A tail swished angrily.

("Everything that we know of, yes. He must know something we don't.") The "that was obvious" tone was evident in the speaker's voice, even telepathically.

CRASH!

"PK Rockin'!"

Ness strummed an invisible guitar. Light began to make slashing motions across Rycoulth, damaging him, then there were two small explosions followed by a chain of them, and finally a huge blast of light threw Rycoulth across the room.

Or was it finally?

The vortex swirled in front of Ness, and suddenly all light and PSI energy in the area was sucked into it. Then the vortex closed, and just as it disappeared there was a massive explosion of the light and PSI energy that had been absorbed.

Ignoring the strange occurence, Kumatora shouted "PK Starstorm!" while Jeff fired several missiles and King let out a howl and charged forwards, fur aglow with silver energy. He was joined by Lucas and Duster, and together they performed a physical attack that was reinforced by King's PSI, which he was somehow able to channel into physical attacks. This attack sent Rycoulth sprawling and then he was peppered by small meteorites. Suddenly larger meteorites began to crash through the roof and smash into him...and everything else.

But now it was Rycoulth's turn. He recovered from the meteors and triple attack, and swiped a claw through the air. At first nothing happened, then a wave of dark energy erupted from the tip of his claw. Jeff dove to the left, Duster to the right, and Kumatora ducked, but Ness, Paula, Lucas, Boney and King caught the blast. Nathan spun his staff rapidly and unleashed a blast of energy somewhat like a laser at Rycoulth, who ducked to avoid it and countered with a pulsewave of darkness. It almost hit Nathan, but he backflipped and then jumped through the pulsewave, which was growing larger.

"PK Fire!" shouted Kumatora, while Lucas healed himself and progressed to heal Ness. They quickly managed to heal everyone who had been hit by the dark wave, and then they continued fighting with a renewed fury.

Then Boney got too close to Rycoulth. Rycoulth pinned him with a foot and was about to deliver the death blow when-

"Hey! Tentacle face!"

It was Kumatora. Rycoulth looked around.

"You're so ugly they had to put tinted windows on your hospital room-if that's what you were born in, you look like you were born in a dumpster."

He responded with a fast-moving blast of darkness, which Kumatora easily avoided; she figured that it would come. Boney wriggled free and leaped up, biting a few tentacles and then running past Lucas to make sure he was prepared for an attack. (He and Duster were the only non PSI-users in the battle, so they had to get back after an attack.)

Nathan vanished in a blue flash. As this blue flash started to fade, another appeared behind Rycoulth and Nathan appeared from it. He signaled for them to move out of the way of whatever he was going to do. Rycoulth noticed them moving and turned around, suspecting something.

WHAM!

Nathan had not done any damage. Gygath had teleported in and shielded Rycoulth with a PSI shield.

"How did you get in?" asked Nathan.

"You never shielded me against teleporting in," replied Gygath with an evil smirk.

"Well, now that you're in you're not getting out," said Nathan, grinning.

"Hey!" screamed Ness. "You!"

Gygath whirled around and saw only a fist flying towards his face; Ness had simply punched him very hard.

"That's for everyone who died because of Giygas!" he shouted. "And this"-Ness hit Gygath with his bat-"is for all the stress Giygas put people in, all the terror, all the stress and fear, and just...everything!"

None of them had ever seen Ness like this. They (at least his dog and two friends from his first adventure) supposed that he really did feel the need to get revenge on someone for all that had happened, and who would be better to take it out on than Giygas's evil brother?

Nathan suddenly signaled for Ness to stop.

"We're not going to kill them," he said quietly. "Just give them some injuries to remember us by and send 'em off somewhere where they can't hurt anyone."

"That's what I was planning on," growled Ness. "Death's too good for them."

Suddenly Nathan remembered something.

"Ness," he said, "do you know what that PSI is?"

"Er...what PSI?"

"PK Rockin'. Do you know what that vortex is?"

"No," replied Ness.

"That is-"

BOOM!

The tower exploded.

Everyone was thrown from the room and through the enchanted stone barrier, out into the air fifty feet above the ground.

"PSI SHIELD!" screamed Ness, Paula, and Lucas, getting the same idea. The three shields vanished from everyone when they hit the ground, and the injuries were limited after a quick healing. The only person truly hurt was Jeff, whose leg had been broken and could not be healed by PSI.

"Ow," muttered Kumatora.

"That," breathed Ness, "was awesome."

"Awesome!" exclaimed Lucas. "We could've been killed several times over!"

Arcturus suddenly swooped down next to them, Nathan on his back.

"I couldn't find Gygath or Rycoulth. I think they used the holes we made in the stone to teleport away-it broke the curse. The explosion was the last of their dark magic, at least here. They made the tower blow up in a final attempt to kill us. It didn't work," he explained. "Here, you guys look...er...injured," he added. A green wave of energy washed gently over them. Jeff flexed his leg. It was fine.

"Thanks," said Jeff.

"Curse?" asked Paula. "Curse" was usually associated with something bad.

"Technically, it's a curse when you create a forcefield to stop beings from teleporting. They can teleport, but only within the limits of the forcefield. It applies in reverse, too-you can apply a forcefield to a location to stop beings teleporting into it. Of course, it's best to use it in conjunction with a physical barrier so they can't fly, walk, or teleport into it," Nathan told her.

Then he paused. King was glowing silver and growling at a squirrel.

"PSI!" he exclaimed suddenly. "Yes-Ness, do you have any idea what version of PK Rockin' you used back there?"

"Er...no," said Ness, unnerved by this sudden change of mood.

"It was PK Rockin' Æ."

"Æ is Latin," said Jeff, confused.

"I know. I find it strange, too. I guess they ran out of Greek lettering. Plus, this is a new category of PSI, so...they may have wanted to change languages to differentiate between basic PSI-Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Omega-and more advanced PSI- Æ,Ç,Ð, and Œ."

"That's an odd combination," continued Jeff. "At least the Greek lettering used Alpha-Beta-Gamma-like A-B-C. Omega was the exception."

"I know," repeated Nathan. "I don't understand it either."

"How do you even pronounce that-AE?" asked Ness.

"I suppose you don't really have to pronounce it. Just think of the letter when you say the PSI attack," suggested Nathan.

"I'll keep that in mind," Ness muttered.

"And you"-Nathan turned to King-"you. It's very uncommon to see PSI used by an animal. How did you...?"

("It all started when...")

And so they explained the battle of Ness, Paula, Jeff, Poo and King vs. Lucas, Kumatora, Duster, and Boney.

"Interesting..." said Nathan when they got to the part about King and the silver lightningbolt.

And where is Poo?" asked Nathan, when they were finished.

"Studying some stuff," said Paula. "I'm not sure what it is."

"Muu or something," Jeff told her.

"Yeah, Muu," said Paula.

"Moo?" said Duster.

"Moo? Like what cows say?" asked Lucas.

"No," answered Paula. "Muu, with 'u's. It's some kind of mental training. He completed the physical test a while back, but he really needs to figure it out."

"It's been too long," said Nathan. "The world needs him. We're going to eradicate the Escaryuba or die trying. You guys need a last person anyway."

"We have you," said Kumatora, confused.

"Not when you're back in Eagleland," he said.

"Why?" asked Lucas.

"Well...see...I made an agreement. That I wouldn't go near you, or help you in battles. I couldn't talk to you, either."

"With...?"

"Well...Rycoulth."

"HOW!" exclaimed Ness.

"If I helped you back then, I could have dramatically altered the future!" he explained.

"What about the time you appeared in that old theater?" inquired Jeff.

"I didn't realize it was you guys. When I saw you, I knew that the spell would take effect if I stayed too long. So I got out of there," said Nathan, shaking his head. He glanced down at his left arm and examined it, looking at the machinery. For the first time they noticed how peculiar he looked. He wore a cape for some reason and had green hair.

"Why do you wear that cape?" asked Lucas, rather bluntly.

Nathan responded by grabbing the end of the cape with both hands. He vanished.

"Hey! Come back!" shouted Duster.

"I'm right here, relax," laughed Nathan, except that he wasn't there.

"Uh...what?" said Paula.

"That's...not...physically...possible...unless..." said Jeff, hesitating between words. "Unless a very rare occurance happens. Particles bend or reflect the light coming off of someone, or reflect all light heading to them. A cloud of these particles would reflect all incoming light, showing nothing even if there is something there, or otherwise bend the light so the person can't be seen from at least one angle, or let light through but reflect it back at the person inside, so that..." Jeff trailed off. "Even I don't quite understand it. A partial bending effect can lead to the illusion that the person is there, but semitransparent...er..."

Nathan laughed again. He reappeared and said, "Or it's just magic. But yeah, I've heard of that happening."

Boney suddenly perked up.

("Teach me magic!") he begged.

"You've been awfully quiet," remarked Lucas.

Ness remembered what King had said, about how he and Boney had private conversations sometimes. He suspected they had been talking.

("I know, but...that's not the point. I feel useless. King can use PSI. Duster has his Mystical Thief Tools, which help a lot, plus when he attacks he doesn't have to stick his neck right in front of the enemy.")

Nathan frowned. "I understand that," he said.

("You do?") asked Boney. ("And how can you understand what I'm saying?")

"Magic and PSI both let you talk to animals, at least if you know telepathy," replied Nathan.

"In that case, teach me telepathy. I know that Boney taunts me sometimes," growled Duster, shooting an angry look at the dog.

("But...I can't do much damage. I'm vulnerable when I attack-I have to stick my neck right there where an enemy's got a clear shot at it, because I can really only do bites and headbutts.")

Nathan's frown turned into a smile.

"If you do this, you'll be the first dog ever to learn magic," he said. "But it's incredibly hard for animals-someone I know tried to teach it to a cat, the cat almost died. Although I think he started out at too high of a level; Auroris Fentrael is a very complex spell to try and teach a cat with no magical experience whatsoever. It's a complex spell even for me!" He laughed. "I'll teach you the basics for now. If you want to continue, you'll have to stay with me for a bit here in the Nowhere Islands."

Boney looked at Lucas. ("Pleeeeaaaase?") he begged.

Lucas's face split into a grin. "Okay, if you really want to," he told the dog.

"There are a few more things I've gotta tell you guys. One, I'm sending you all back to Eagleland."

"Why?" asked Ness.

"Well, there's much more trouble there. You guys are supposed to be there anyway, since you're the only ones who can stop the Escaryuba. If you stayed here, your world would crumble."

"What about Boney?" asked Kumatora.

"It's safe here, if you don't count the Chimeras, but we can take those. He needs to be safe if he's going to learn this stuff," answered Nathan.

"Another thing. I'll be going back to Eagleland periodically, between teaching Boney, but Rycoulth and Gygath may have gone there as well. Be careful."

They nodded.

"Third...Lucas, do you remember what happened to that hilt that you had?" asked Nathan.

Lucas jumped.

"I've completely forgotten about finding those swords! I've gotten so wrapped up in this Escaryuba-magic-time travel stuff that I've forgotten about them!"

"Here." Nathan handed a hilt to Lucas. "You dropped it in those woods, when you fell over. You know, because you were tired?"

"Yeah," said Lucas, grinning.

"The Escaryuba have the blade part of it. The jewels for your blade and...oh, yeah!"

Nathan raised his left arm and opened his palm. Energy swirled around it and formed into a sword.

"King, you left Hydra in the bushes when it turned you into a cat. Here, Ness," said Nathan, handing the sword to Ness.

Ness took the sword.

"Hydra?" he asked.

"That's what it's called. See that little inscription on the hilt?" replied Nathan.

Ness remembered the inscription. He remembered the concealed hole in the jungle ferns. He remembered sitting on a cliff-ledge with Paula and tossing the hilt to her, and she had said something about the inscription.

Ness swished the sword through the air a bit. It felt lightweight and easy to control.

"Do you know what these swords can do?" Nathan asked him.

"No," said Ness, studying the sword.

"Here." Nathan took the sword and then swung it diagonally upwards, to his right. It went behind his head.

"PK Crescent!" he roared, slashing diagonally downwards to the left. A small wave of crescent-shaped energy fired from the tip of the blade and rocketed off into the forest. They could see it illuminating the path it took through the forest, occasionally hitting a tree and passing through it. The tree fell over moments later, and then it repaired itself. (Nathan was doing that; he did not like to see trees cut down.) It was already dark.

"You can use PSI?" asked Paula.

"To some degree...only with PSI-channeling objects like this sword," came the response as Nathan handed the sword back to Ness.

"That sword channels PSI?" said Ness.

"Aye," said Nathan, grinning. "You shouldn't have any problem with it. It was formed in your world, after all-made for PSI-users. Back in those days it was mostly royalty with PSI powers, and only high royalty at that-kings, queens, princes, princesses, and extremely high-ranking nobles."

"Poo is a prince," pointed out Jeff.

"And Kumatora's a princess," said Duster.

"But Paula, Lucas, King and I are just regular people...and a dog," said Ness.

"There's the rare person born with PSI. If they have PSI, their kids will have it too, unless they don't have kids."

"You're saying if King gets a mate-or wife, I dunno which dogs prefer to say-all of the puppies will be able to use PSI?" said Ness, wondering what it would be like to be the owner of five or more PSI-using puppies. He imagined one of them floating around and another breathing fire and a third using PK silver.

"You could put it like that, yeah," said Nathan.

The sword in Ness's hand suddenly spun and pointed towards the darkest part of the forest.

"It's pointing out where to go. Go through there, it's the safest way back to the train station. I've gotta do something. I'll give you guys one more night here, then you have to go back," said Nathan, suddenly looking alarmed. "GO!"

They sprinted away from him. In the distance, they saw things coming out from the woods. They looked like bananas.

* * *

It was a quick ride back to Tazmily in the train. Ness, Boney, Kumatora, and Duster sat huddled together on one long seat. Lucas, Jeff, Paula, and King managed to squeeze in across from them.

"They look strange," muttered people around them. Kumatora insulted those who said it very harshly, and soon they were left alone. Once they heard someone who had been insulted mumble something along the lines of "Sugar and spice and everything nice...pfft...not her, no, she's made of rotting fish."

Kumatora, luckily, did not hear this.

People also wondered why they were squeezed together like sardines.

"That's not true," said Ness. "We're sitting on a long bench."

When they reached Tazmily, they went to the inn and booked some rooms. The innkeeper later said, "It's never been so crowded!"

This was the truth, as hardly any visitors ever came to Tazmily. When they did, they either had harsh foreign accents, spoke a foreign language, or were trying to declare war. (This always failed miserably, as the town kept a supply of captured chimeras ready to scare away the warmongers.) Almost nobody from the nearby, friendly Isle of Thyrr came, as a deadly seabeast patrolled the waters between the islands. This reminded the Eaglelanders of the Kraken, which instilled fear in the sailors of Summers and the nearby port town, not to mention those of Scaraba.

They stayed for the night and tried to see as much as possible in the few hours they stayed the next day. Ness was interested in the seabeast between the islands, and Lucas shared his childlike fascination. In fact, all the guys did, and Paula and Kumatora spent two hours they considered boring searching for a sea serpent aboard a borrowed boat. The seabeast was also searching from them, and they only found it when they stopped moving. But then Ness started feeding it meat. It left them in peace, and when the info was passed around both islands the Tazmily Inn got much more buisness. The butcher shop also got a lot more business from travelers, and the seabeast's stomach got more food.

Finally the time came for them to leave.

Nathan created a very complex series of runes in the air. Then he muttered some incantations and then made a vertical slash in the air with his staff. The portal was blue, not orange, and it did not suck them in.

"That was a certain type of portal designed to throw foes into different dimensions and times and places. It depends on the runes and incantations what type of portal, what you want to throw them through, and which one, what time, or where," explained Nathan.

Ness took a deep breath and jumped through the portal. Then Lucas, Paula, Kumatora, Jeff, Duster, and King. Boney would be staying to learn magic, but Nathan had explained that he would go back to Eagleland periodically.

And then they were lying on a rainy street in front of the Topolla Theater, staring up at the sky, which was a cloudy gray. It was not dark. At least Twoson was safe...for now.

* * *

A brief spell in the Nowhere Islands, and now they're back in the fight. Boney's going to try and learn magic to make up for the fact that his neck is always exposed when he attacks. They've gotten the sword back and learned a few things about it, including the name (Hydra), and Lucas has the hilt of the second sword back. They know that the Escaryuba have the blade that fits with it, but the jewels that are supposed to be in the hilt remain elusive.

This is getting weird. PLEASE REVIEW! I would like some feedback on this story!


	11. Winters Again

Chapter 11: Winters Again

PLEASE REVIEW! I would like some feedback!

* * *

"Where do we go first?"

It was Kumatora.

("Back to Winters?") suggested King. ("If the swords really are that powerful, we need to find the blade that matches the hilt Lucas has.")

"Good point," said Lucas.

"No. Dalaam," said Ness.

"We haven't been there in a while," said Paula.

"Why Dalaam?" asked Jeff.

"Poo lives there. If we find Poo, he can help make up for Boney's absence. Plus, he knows some strong PSI. He's the only one of us to learn PK Thunder Omega, and he knows PK Starstorm," replied Ness.

"Better point," said Duster.

"Come on, then! If he knows PK Starstorm, he's gotta be good!" said Kumatora.

"Gather around me, then," said Ness. "PSI Tele-"

"Sir! Sir!"

A man walked out of the Topolla theater. He was dressed nicely. Ness assumed they must have a classical performance going on, or the staff dressed nicely now. In the days of the Runaway Five performing here they hadn't been dressed in tuxedoes.

"Are you loitering?"

"I'm teleporting to Dalaam," said Ness.

"Let's watch you, then," said the man, who obviously did not believe him.

"PSI Tele-"

"NEEESSS!"

Apple Kid came running up, panting.

"I was nearby and I couldn't help overhearing you say that you were going to Dalaam," he panted.

"Er...yeah," said Ness. "Why? What about it?"

"It's overrun with rabbits!"

"Rabbits?" Paula laughed. "Just regular old rabbits?"

"Yeah! They're eating all the crops and stuff! That's what they eat up there, see, so...here, take this!"

He held up a machine with a picture of a flying carrot on it. Duster took it and put in the bag full of Mystical Thief Tools, causing the Siren Beetle to emit a short SKREEEE! of alarm before Duster prodded it sharply. It shut up.

"What does it do?" asked Kumatora, eyeing the bag warily.

"Er...who are you?" asked Apple Kid, ignoring the question.

"These are friends of ours," said Ness. "Lucas, Kumatora, and Duster."

"Oh. Nice to meet you all. Anyway, this machine creates winged carrots that fly around. They'll lead the rabbits into a cave I've heard is there and then they'll multiply to feed the rabbits and stop them from eating the village crops."

"Uhh...okay," said Ness uncertainly.

"I'm waiting," said the man. They jumped; the group had forgotten that he was there.

"Alright-thanks, Apple Kid, see you-everyone ready? PSI TELEPORT!"

They whirled around like a tornado and vanished.

* * *

There was a muffled thump. Something soft blocked their landing.

"'Overrun' is an understatement," grumbled Duster, flipping onto his feet.

"How did this even happen?" asked Ness.

A passing woman heard him. "It is Prince Poo. He has been locked in his room for several weeks. He had two rabbits. They bred. They overran the town when they managed to escape! The crops...we cannot eat! The rabbits are consuming them all!"

Kumatora picked up a rabbit. It kicked at her with its hind legs. Then she put it down and grabbed the bag containing the Mystical Thief Tools (the Siren Beetle emitted a loud SKREEEE! which caused all in the vicinity to look around before she prodded it sharply), pulling out the strange machine Apple Kid had given them.

"Try this," she told the woman. The woman pressed a button on the machine's side. Instantly, there was a loud whirring. Moments later, several carrots flew out of the end. They sprouted wings and let out a loud shriek.

"I hope that was a one-time thing," said Paula.

"Me too," groaned Ness.

Suddenly all the rabbits in the area turned their heads. Then they chased the carrots. As the carrots flew, they split into two half-carrots, then grew into a whole carrot. Soon people were swarmed by stampeding rabbits chasing the carrots. Everyone watched as the carrots flew into the cave that Ness knew contained a Sanctuary spot. The rabbits followed, and then the machine launched a volley of white spheres into the air. They landed in front of the cave and turned into stalactites.

"That was weird," said Lucas.

"C'mon, let's find Poo," said Ness, and they trekked up the mountain paths until they came to the golden palace at the top.

"No visitors allowed at the moment. The Emperor does not want people to be able to see his son," said a guard.

Duster took out the Hypno-Pendulum and swung it back and forth. The guards' eyes slid out of focus and they opened the doors.

"Brilliant," said Kumatora.

Ness, Paula, Jeff, King, Lucas, Duster and Kumatora entered the hall. They walked along it and turned right into the throne room.

"I'm here to see Prince Poo," said Ness. The Emperor seemed to fill the hall with his authority. Ness could tell he was feared and respected, but Ness had always been one to throw caution to the ravenous maggots.

"My son is very ill," the Emperor said. "How did you get in?"

"That's not important. If he's ill, we'd like to see him," said Paula. "Please?"

She gave him the look that she always used to persuade people. It was as effective as Duster's Hypno-Pendulum and the Emperor's face faltered, and finally he frowned out of sadness.

"Alright," he said. "Guards-"

They opened the doors.

Ness and Jeff high-fived Paula once they were safely inside. It was dark, but they could see a form sitting in the middle of the floor.

"Poo?" asked Ness tentatively.

He did not move.

"Poo?" repeated Ness.

("I know what to do,") said King. He walked over to Poo and began to tickle him with a paw.

Poo burst out laughing.

"Ticklish, eh?" said Kumatora.

Poo turned around. Paula gasped as the torches in the corners lit; his eyes were red, as if he hadn't slept in a while. He was grinning manically.

"Rabbits," he said. "How I love rabbits."

And for the first time, they noticed the rabbits on the floor. Poo picked one up and petted it.

"Are you...quite sure he's sane?" whispered Lucas to Ness.

"Not anymore," Ness replied quietly.

"PK Thunder!" shouted Paula. A bolt of lightning came hurtling down from the sky and hit Poo. He seemed to melt.

"A Starman!" exclaimed Jeff. He fired a laser at its head. It exploded violently.

"Nice shot," said Ness.

"Thanks," replied Jeff. Guards came hurrying in.

"Impostor," said Paula, pointing. The guards' eyes went wide, and they rushed out of the room.

"That was good," said Ness. "How did you know it was a Starman?"

"Ness," said Paula, smiling, "would Poo ever own a rabbit?"

Ness shook his head.

"Jeff acted rude to us, but it wasn't Jeff. So if Poo acted differently, which he did, it would be obvious he was an impostor."

The others nodded.

"Now we have two things to do," said Ness. "Find the blade to that hilt, and find Poo."

Lucas nodded. "What about your sword? Aren't you going to use that?"

Ness took it from his pack. "Maybe I will. I forgot about it."

"Let's get out of here," said Kumatora. "Look in Winters for clues about that blade-like where the Escaryuba could be holding it, at least what direction it's in. If we find it, we'll have more of a chance of taking down whatever kidnapped your friend."

"Alright...we'll need to go outside, you can't teleport inside of a building..." said Ness.

They walked outside and passed the door guards.

"Have a good Easter," said one of them.

"No, it's Thanksgiving," said the other.

They moved to a field.

"PSI Teleport!"

The Alpha version enabled them to run around the field until they were fast enough to jump off the cliff edge and sort of fly away.

Which is what they did.

Single-file, Ness, Lucas, Paula, Kumatora, Jeff, Duster, and King hurtled over the cliff edge and flew away, although a minute later they were fast enough to just shoot forwards through space.

* * *

They landed faceup in a snowdrift that seemed awfully familiar. Ness landed next to Paula and Lucas, and the next moment Ness had his arms around them both and was pulling them away from something.

"Aahh-what's going on?" asked Paula.

"It's Pronch's body!" shouted Ness, for the others to hear as well. Paula went sort of stiff. She was sure it would be half bones by now-and that was disgusting.

CRASH.

A tree was ripped out and thrown into the ground some thirty meters away.

"No time to worry about a corpse! Something's coming!" screamed Kumatora. Ness saw her pull Duster, King and Jeff into the snow, creating a small cave. Ness copied her, pulling Paula and Lucas into a cave they created by packing snow into the walls. It was cramped but warm inside the cave.

("What's coming?") he asked Kumatora through the snow.

("Some sort of monster!")

CRASH.

Another tree had been ripped out, closer this time. Ness, Paula, and Lucas packed themselves closer together.

"I don't think it'll see you if you make yourself as small as possible," said Ness quietly. He realized his lips were inches from Paula's but forgot it quickly as another tree was ripped out.

CRASH.

("Lucas-remember that lightstorm thing?") he asked.

("Yeah, why?")

They were trying to not talk, because it might attract attention.

CRASH.

Ness forgot what he was going to say.

CRASH.

Closer. It sounded only thirty feet away.

("Are you getting some sort of weird death feeling?") said Kumatora. ("Like you're about to die?")

("It sounds ominous,") remarked Paula.

Crunch. Crunch.

Someone was above them. They yelled in surprise. Ness reached up through the snow and grabbed their ankle. He pulled them down as Paula fired a carefully aimed PK Freeze and patched the hole.

"You're welcome," said Ness gruffly.

"Who-who are you?" asked the person.

"Shut up! It's coming!" hissed Lucas.

Ness realized they were even further from the open now and more closely packed together. What if it just stepped on them?

A large red eye appeared at the end of the tunnel. Paula and Lucas held the man still.

They sat there for what felt like hours as the monster looked at them. Finally it moved away.

("Stay still! It'll leave!") said Lucas, directing his thought at Kumatora, Jeff, Duster, and King. They saw a pair of gigantic boots and then a hand reached down. It grabbed something from the snow and lifted it.

("It's a corpse!") said Paula.

"Pronch," muttered Ness. "It's him."

The creature let out a bellowing roar. Lucas realized where he had heard that.

"It's a Yeti," he whispered.

Ness crawled away from them.

("Where are you going?") asked Paula.

("To look,") he replied.

("You'll be crushed! Eaten alive!") she exclaimed.

Ignoring her, Ness poked his head out of the hole and looked up.

It wasn't a Yeti.

It was like it, but far more dangerous.

Twenty feet tall, wearing a helmet, chest armor, some sort of leg covering, and gauntlets, it was also holding a large battleaxe. It was hairy, blue, had red eyes, and looked very strong.

It was a frost giant.

Ness had heard of a frost giant in a myth (he had forgotten which, it may have been Norse mythology), but they hadn't been geared for battle.

This one was looking to kill.

Ness remembered the sword and how a weak PK Crescent attack had severed trees in half. He wondered if...

"Hey, Frosty!"

The giant turned around.

"I AM YMIR!" it bellowed. "I AM NOT FROSTY!"

"Yes you are," taunted Ness. "You look like you played in a sprinkler then jumped in a freezer."

The giant shook its enormous head, as if warding off the [stupid] taunt. Ice fell from the hair.

"IT IS NO MATTER, MERE MORTAL! THE GREAT YMIR CANNOT BE DEFEATED!" it roared.

Ness grinned.

"Even with this?" he asked, holding up the sword-was it called Hydra?

"THAT IS A MERE SWORD! MY GREAT AXE WILL CLEAVE YOU IN HALF! I COULD CRUSH YOU LIKE A BUG!"

"This bug's got a stinger," he muttered to himself. "PK Crescent!"

Energy flowed from the tip of the blade as Ness slashed, forming a large, crackling wave of energy in the shape of a crescent moon. It shot forwards through the air and hit the giant. There was a minor explosion and the giant was thrown into the cliff. It came charging back and swung its battleaxe at Ness. He countered with a second PK Crescent, and it was taking a lot of effort to keep the blade steady; it was like he had hit the axe directly. The colossal weapon flew out of the giant's hands and Ness stepped back.

"NO MATTER! I SHALL CRUSH YOU!" bellowed the giant. It rushed forwards, but before it could stomp on Ness a beetle came flying though the air very quickly. It hit the giant's ear.

"SKREEEEEEE!"

The Siren Beetle's shriek made the giant shout out in surprise. The beetle flew back to Duster as the giant stomped towards him.

"PK Fire!"

Paula and Kumatora had come out of the caves and launched a double attack on the frost giant. It let out another shout, then pulled a rock out of the ground. It threw the rock, and they had to dive out of its way. As the giant made to stomp on Ness, white and silver energy flew from two different directions and smashed into the giant.

"Looks like everybody's joined in!" grinned Ness as a rocket flew over his head and knocked the frost giant's helmet off.

"PK Fire!"

"PK Love!"

Flames and white energy surged forwards, almost toppling the frost giant. As it struggled to regain its balance, Ness fired off a well-aimed PK Crescent to its chest and it flew backwards several meters. There was a crash as it toppled into the snow.

"Do you think it will be okay?" asked Paula tentatively.

"You're the only person I know who worries about frost giants that were just swinging battleaxes around," grumbled Ness, although quietly.

"Huh?" said Paula.

"What?" said Ness. "Is it a dragon?"

"Not funny," said Kumatora dully.

Suddenly they all collapsed, laughing and giddy. For some reason, everything seemed hundreds of times funnier than before.

Nathan, Boney, Rycoulth, magic, the Nowhere Islands, Thunder Tower, all that stuff...it seemed so far away now. They had been jerked away from it so swiftly it was almost frightening. In fact, it was-Ness screamed like a girl, causing Jeff to nearly explode with laughter.

After what seemed like hours, they finally came to.

"I feel kinda sick," muttered Lucas.

"So do I," said Kumatora.

THUNK.

Something small whizzed by their heads and stuck in a tree. It was a glaive.

Duster pulled it out of the bark and examined it with interest. Then he dropped it.

"That," he said, "was strange."

"What?" asked Kumatora. "Did it cut you? 'Cause sharp things do that, Duster."

He ignored her. "It started vibrating...then my fingers went numb and started tingling. Then they began to hurt."

ZZZT!

Jeff had prodded it with a long metal rod with a rubber handle and the metal had reacted violently; it flew away from the glaive and took Jeff with it. It was Ness's turn to laugh.

"I hope nothing ever happens to us that makes us violently change our personalities, such as..." he began, but suddenly fell forwards with his pants on fire. Paula clearly thought he was beginning a speech.

"Anyone noticed that it's sunk several inches past where Duster dropped it?" asked Jeff.

"I wouldn't notice that if you paid me," grumbled Kumatora. Lucas scowled rather uncharacteristically; he wasn't one to get mad.

"Clearly, it's not just our imaginations. Imagination can't throw inanimate metallic objects away from it with a force like that, or make something so hot it melts snow," said Jeff, getting up.

"They could, technically," said Ness. He imagined Jeff being shoved back down into the snow and pointed a finger at him. Jeff toppled.

"That doesn't apply to PSI users!" shouted Jeff angrily as he got up and fell down again. Kumatora and Ness were now taking it in turns to shove him back down.

"Stop, I think he has something important to say!" exclaimed Paula.

"Thank you, Paula," said Jeff, sitting up and straightening his glasses. "This glaive-do you know anyone or anything that could possibly want to kill you, Duster?"

"A walking banana?" suggested Duster.

"The sad thing is, that's actually a good suggestion," said Ness sadly.

* * *

They were sitting in Dr. Andonuts' laboratory. The glaive lay on a table with a rubber pad on the surface and Jeff was examining it.

"Aha!" he exclaimed finally.

"Zzz...whaa?" said Ness. "Aha wha?" He had been asleep.

"Is that just sleepiness talk or are you trying to ask something?" asked Paula.

Ness struggled to pronounce the words. "Aha what? What did you find?"

Jeff held up the small metal disk. "A small mark. It's the letter E, I think, in some other language. There is a picture of a banana peel propped up on the peeled-away peel."

THUNK.

"What was that?" said Duster, springing up.

"Alligators," replied Kumatora sarcastically. "What do you think it is? Probably another banana."

Suddenly Ness felt slightly dizzy. He knew what was coming before it happened.

The world faded.

* * *

The lab exploded.

Well, not exactly. It sort of collapsed, sending rubble flying down onto them. Kumatora almost managed to get out, but a chunk of cement came out of nowhere and pinned her to the ground.

"Ouch," said Ness.

No reply from anyone.

"Is anyone conscious?" he asked.

He pushed aside a chunk of cement-and yelled in horror and shock.

Lucas was lying there. He was clearly dead-nobody could look like that and be alive. He was hardly recognizable as Lucas.

The vision faded.

* * *

"WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE, NOW!" bellowed Ness suddenly.

"Why? Why?" said Paula, springing up.

"IT'S GOING TO COLLAPSE!" Ness jumped up and sprinted to the door. Paula and Jeff went with him.

"What is?" asked Duster rather calmly.

"THE LAB! WE'VE GOTTA LEAVE!"

"Why?" inquired Lucas.

"Because you're going to die if we don't!" roared Ness.

"Me?" said Lucas.

"Yeah! Quit repeating what I say, we've gotta get outta here!"

"Did anyone else notice Ness's eyes glaze over, like when he has one of those visions? Cause I did, and I believe him," said Jeff.

"Thank you, Jeff, for showing some sense," said Ness. Jeff's words seemed to convince Kumatora and Duster that Ness was right. They went to the door as there was a crash.

Lucas suddenly seemed to realize something, as did King. They sprinted to the door-

CRASH!

The building collapsed inwardly. The seven of them threw themselves through the doorway and landed facedown in the snow.

"Urrrgghhh..." muttered Lucas. "You were right."

Suddenly Ness felt very hot despite the fact that he was in the snow.

He sat up and smelled smoke.

The forest! It was on fire!

"Hey! The forest! It's-it's burning down!" he exclaimed.

"PK Freeze!" shouted Paula and Kumatora. Blasts of icy air burst from their hands, but something-a laser-shot out from the top of the destroyed lab and caused the icy air to turn hot and further burn the forest.

Suddenly they heard someone cry out.

"Jeff!"

It was Tony.

"What are you doing here, Tony! Get away!" roared Jeff over the flames.

"But-but I want to-"

"Get away from here! It isn't safe!" shouted Ness.

Tony ran off past Stonehenge into the cave.

"Jeff!" said Duster.

"Yeah?"

"Do you still have that rocket launcher? The one you used against that frost giant?"

"Of course! Why?"

"Can you fire it at the top of the rubble? After you see where these lasers are coming from?"

"Sure!"

Paula and Kumatora tried PK Freeze again, but to no avail. But this time Jeff saw where the laser came from. He took aim with the baxooka and fired. A rocket flew out of the end of it and collided with the spot where the lasers came from. There was a colossal explosion and yellow things fell from the rubble.

"Escaryuba!" said Paula.

"Aye," said a voice.

"Nathan!" exclaimed Ness. "How can you-"

"The agreement doesn't take effect when you're in different time periods. Rycoulth and Gygath are in the Nowhere Islands. They'll be back tomorrow-that battle took a lot out of them," he explained.

Suddenly an Escaryuba fell from the sky and clanged off his metal arm.

"The...performance..." it gasped. "You must...find out...more...it will tell you...about...history..."

They saw a large bite mark on it. It appeared shriveled.

"It must have betrayed them for our sake," said Ness.

"Oh, God," said Paula. "It's horrible what they do, isn't it?"

Ness put an arm around her.

("Inferna Spherica!")

A fireball shot out of nowhere and incinerated something behind them, which was apparently an Escaryuba.

("We should get somewhere safe!") barked Boney.

"Boney!" exclaimed Lucas.

("Yeah, it's me. And I can use some magic now! Just a few basic things, really-")

BOOM!

The ground shook, but it wasn't an explosion. It was...

"It's a spaceship! It's taking off!" exclaimed Paula.

Nathan spun his staff and fired a bolt of green energy at it. Its wing was damaged, but it flew off into the sky at high speed.

"That thing is awesome. Where'd you get it?" asked Ness.

"It's a very long story," said Nathan. "It would take me a while to tell it. It took a few years of searching to find this thing."

"You should name it," joked Ness.

"It does have a name. It's called Navenstrae," said Nathan. "We need to get going. Let's go to the caves-we should be temporarily safe there. They've expanded, you know-snow melts all the time. Lots of erosion."

They sprinted off in the direction of the caves, Boney launching fireballs behind them at unseen enemies.

* * *

It was dark and there were mushrooms in some places, but nobody minded. They were in a part of the caves that had not been there before.

Ness and Paula were sitting in a passage.

"I thought we were dead back there with the frost giant," said Ness. "I really did."

"I was scared," admitted Paula.

"Amazing what that sword did, huh?"

"Yeah."

There was a brief silence.

"Those ice caves were cramped," said Ness. "There was hardly room to breathe."

"We wouldn't be breathing at all if we hadn't been in those caves," said Paula.

"True," said Ness.

"That Escaryuba said something about a performance. Wonder what-"

"A performance! Nathan said something about a performance before we knew who he was, back in that theater."

"Hey, that's right!" said Paula. "That means...wait...we can find out something about the Escaryuba if we find out about the performance?"

"I guess."

There was another silence.

"Paula?"

"Hmm?"

"Speaking of that theater...back there...I felt what you felt."

"Well, now you know how I felt."

"Heh...felt sounds like felt. But the second one is a material."

"Ness...really?"

"Ya rly."

A third silence.

"Paula?"

"Are you going to say another internet meme?"

"No. I just kinda wanted you to know...er..."

He couldn't exactly get his tongue around the words.

"...you love me too?"

"Uh...maybe?"

("Rude,") said King, who had walked around a corner.

("Shut up,") snarled Ness.

"And maybe means?"

"Uh..."

A minute passed.

"Yes."

He kissed her.

* * *

Duster was pacing around the chamber.

"Did you ever think that maybe that frost giant was sent here for something?" he asked.

"You suggesting that these Escaryuba creeps sent in a mail-order for a frost giant?" said Kumatora.

"Sort of," said Duster. "More of a portal-order, if you ask me."

"I think that's precisely what happened," said Nathan. "Although I don't think it was an order, more of a surprise gift for the Escaryuba to use."

"The way it was used is terrible. Brainwashed to be a slave of the Escaryuba..." said Lucas.

"Frost giants are naturally hostile, but you've got a point. They never listen to anyone, and they wouldn't specifically appear at a place like this unless it was known where you guys would go, and I figured that you'd say your destination out loud. It was sent here, definitely."

"Jeff?"

Tony's voice echoed through the caves from above. He had clearly gone back through the caves to see if Jeff was still at Stonehenge.

Jeff ran out into the passage, which was a bit of a shock for him because he stumbled on Ness and Paula.

"Er..."

Ness and Paula must have noticed him, because they broke apart.

"Sorry, Jeff. Didn't realize you'd be out here," said Ness, grinning sheepishly.

"That's alright," said Jeff. "Just a little...weird to walk in on."

"Jeff?"

"Tony! I'm down here!"

Rapid footsteps echoed along the passage.

"Jeff!" Tony exclaimed. He ran down the passage and hugged Jeff.

Ness and Paula shot sideways glances at each other. They still had their arms wrapped around one another, but were looking at Jeff and Tony. Jeff returned the hug a little reluctantly and took a small step back.

"What's going on? Why aren't you at Snow Wood?" asked Jeff.

"There's something wrong with Maxwell. A few of the others and me are hiding in a tiny chamber in here, because some stuff he does is really strange. Sometimes even violent."

"Then report it to the headmaster!"

"He's...missing."

"Missing!" exclaimed Ness. "That isn't good...not good at all..."

"So Maxwell is acting strange...and there's nobody to report him to..."

"Nobody at all," said Tony.

"Does he actually hurt anyone?"

"Sometimes," replied Tony after a very pregant pause.

Jeff frowned. Just then Duster, Kumatora, Lucas, Boney, and Nathan came out of the chamber. They saw Ness and Paula, with their arms around each other, King, with an expression between amusement at Ness and Paula and concern for Tony and the rest at Snow Wood, and Tony and Jeff, looking upset, and assumed the worst.

"Your school got blown up?" said Kumatora. Tony looked even more miserable than before.

"W-worse," he stammered. "It's terrible there now. T-the h-headmaster's g-g-gone and M-Maxwell is acting w-w-weird and v-violent..."

"Kumatora," said Duster in a low voice, "sometimes, consider what you're saying before you say it. See what you've done?"

Kumatora frowned. "The kid got upset by himself."

Duster glared at her. "No. You said something that was possibly upsetting and made him think that what's happening is even worse than what you said."

"Duster's got a point, you know." It was Nathan. "Think about what you say before you say it."

"And why should I listen to you?" asked Kumatora. "You're something like fifteen."

"I may be fifteen," said Nathan, "but I could turn you back into an embryo in a snap"-he snapped his fingers-"of my fingers."

That shut Kumatora up, but Duster kept his right hand ready in case he had to put it over her mouth.

They trudged through the caves and snow to Snow Wood. If Maxwell was acting strange, they were going to find out why.

Then they were going back to Threed. They needed Nathan's help to find out about the performance before Gygath and Rycoulth returned...or else.

* * *

That's the end of this chapter. CLIFFHANGER!

PLEASE REVIEW! I would really like some feedback on this story!

Next chapter: Poison Wood Boarding School.


	12. Poison Wood Boarding School

Chapter 12: Poison Wood Boarding School

PLEASE REVIEW! The usual all-caps words...and I could use some feedback...blah blah blah. Shut up already, author. Wait...that's me.

You know, I think Eagleland is like an alternate-dimension Earth. PSI couldn't possibly exist on Earth, or else I think we'd know. Or not. Nathan's from yet another alternate-dimension Earth, but geographically it's the same. It's just that magic and stuff are possible there.

* * *

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

The crisp, fresh snow was crunching underneath their feet.

"So...any changes to the curriculum?" asked Jeff.

"A few," said Tony. "We've been trying to give life to bananas."

"That gives me a very good idea of what's going on," said Jeff.

There was a large pair of wrought-iron gates, padlocked shut.

"PK Blast!" commanded Ness. The blast reflected off of the air and singed his eyebrows.

"It's a shield," said Paula. "Wonder how they got it to last?"

"With Rycoulth or Gygath, you'd never know," snarled Nathan, at the same time unsheathing a flaming dagger, muttering something, and delivering a long diagonal slash to the shield. It shattered and Ness tried PK Blast on the gate again. This time it worked, but they hadn't gone two steps when gunshots were heard. Several holes appeared in Ness's hat and several bullets flew for Nathan, but he deflected them with some very fast movements of the slim shield on his right arm. One grazed Duster's arm and another hit Jeff in the shoe, where it caused some pain but was, for the most part, embedded in the shoe.

"What just happened?" asked Paula, confused. Duster swore loudly as he rolled up his sleeve; another half-inch down and the bullet would have stuck. The cut was rather deep, and seeing it made Ness remember something. He prodded his cheek. Nothing, meaning the wound the Escaryuba had inflicted had healed.

"PSI Lifeup," said Kumatora, waving a hand over Duster's arm. It did not work.

"Huh," said Duster. "That's odd."

"It's because there's a toxin that blocks PSI in the bullets. Any wound inflicted by them can't be healed...by PSI," said Nathan, holding up a bullet.

"How did you-" began Ness.

Nathan held up a magnifying glass and the bullet he had evidently retrieved.. "It's got a slight sheen to it and it's tinted purple, if only faintly."

Ness examined it. It was, indeed, slightly shiny and somewhat purple, at least where it wasn't red. This was evidently the bullet that had hit Duster.

"Interesting," he muttered. Nathan attempted a heal on Duster's arm.

"That's strange...very strange..." said Nathan to himself. "Of course! They must have known they wouldn't be in this time at one point and I could aid you guys...but they added a second toxin UNDER the PSI-blocking toxin...so that it couldn't be seen...but it was still there and in the wound...that's it..."

Kumatora looked worried as she looked at Duster's cut arm. It was a little strangely colored.

"It actually doesn't-" began Duster. Then his eyes turned yellow. "t-tha-KILL. KUMATORA. NESS. LUCAS. KING. BONEY. PAULA. JEFF. KILL. KILL IN THE NAME OF THE ESCARYUBA."

Kumatora looked at Nathan for an answer, as did Ness and Jeff.

"I dunno what's going on here!" he exclaimed. "I've never heard of any material or toxin or anything that does that!" For the first time, he looked panicked.

Duster lunged for the nearest person-Kumatora-and attempted to bite.

"Lucas," said Ness. "Do you have any dog treats?"

King's ears perked up. ("Treat?")

"Uh...yeah, but I don't think King or Boney is going to turn into anything special," said Lucas.

"It's not for them," snapped Ness.

Lucas took a dog treat out of his pocket. "I sometimes give them to Boney," he explained.

Ness rushed over to Duster and wedged the bone-shaped treat in Duster's mouth.

"That takes care of that...for now," he said. "At least he won't bite anyone."

Duster struggled to get the dog treat out of his mouth. It was proving difficult.

"Uhh..." said Paula. "Not saying it isn't effective, but it's weird."

Duster's eyes were still yellow, and Nathan began to wonder if he just had liver disease. He also wondered if Duster's eyes would taste like lemons to an eyeater, if one came along. He kept this thought to himself.

"Arrf."

Duster had barked.

"Duster?" asked Lucas. "You're not a dog."

Duster glared at him and looked about to kill, but Kumatora froze his hands together behind his back.

"YOU ARE INTRUDING ON THE PROPERTY OF POISON WOOD BOARDING SCHOOL. WHAT PURPOSE DO YOU HAVE?"

"We're here to see Maxwell!" bellowed Ness to the air.

"VERY WELL. GUARDS, SOMEONE IS COMING TO SEE MASTER MAXWELL. STAND ASIDE."

The doors swung open and they walked inside.

It wasn't like it had been when Jeff had been there. It had a much less friendly air. Students were absent from the corridors. Then-

"KILL."

A young boy no older than five was standing outside of a door.. His eyes were yellow, like Duster's.

"Ohhh...nooo..." moaned Nathan. "They've all been drugged or betwitched or something..."

The boy staggered towards Paula and attempted to fix his hands around Paula's throat. She gently pushed him away, not wanting to hurt him, but he went for Jeff instead.

"Molevihombrus," said Nathan. The boy was lifted into the air and flew back through the door.

"Can't you do anything about Duster?" asked Kumatora. The dog treat and ice were working, but he was still struggling to spit out the dog treat and unfreeze his hands. He looked livid.

"I can try," said Nathan. "Recorvus...Pathamato..."

He kept muttering things, and slowly Duster returned to normal. His eyes faded back to their normal color, Kumatora unfroze his hands, and Ness wrenched the dog treat from his mouth.

Nathan looked tired. "That took a lot out of me. I don't think I can do it again unless-"

"PSI Heal!" said Ness, Lucas, and Kumatora simultaneously.

Nathan seemed to feel better.

"The advantage of PSI is that it doesn't exhaust you. It depletes your PSI energy, but that can be restored with Magic Tarts and Magic Gelatin and PSI P-Magnet and things like that," he explained. "Magic tires you out if you do a lot of it. Of course, I've got my own degree of non-magic powers, but they're not as strong as normal right now..."

He trailed off.

"What happened?" asked Duster.

"Probably an unknown neurotoxin. Possibly of alien origins, created in order to enslave other races and force them to the the bidding of the Escaryuba," said Jeff, taking out a laser. "This is just in case," he added, waving the laser; Paula and Lucas ducked in case it accidentally discharged.

("Let's go see this 'Master Maxwell' then,") said King.

("Yeah!") said Boney. ("Let's get him!") He hopped from paw to paw in a strange, excited dance.

"Don't get cocky just 'cause you can shoot fire and do a basic healing," warned Nathan. "There are plenty of things out there that would still easily defeat you."

Boney hung his head.

"I'm not trying to hurt your feelings," soothed Nathan. "It's just...you're at a very early stage of magical training. You're doing well."

Boney perked up.

"It's this way," said Tony. They passed several more classrooms full of yellow-eyes students and teachers, all with chalkboards covered in drawings of...them.

"Gruesome," said Ness, shuddering; there was a nasty picture of his own head lying severed on the ground. Another room contained a picture of Lucas skewered, Jeff...too disgusting. A third contained a horrible picture of them all lying dead, and it was very well-drawn. They had all apparently been killed in terrible ways.

"This is weird," muttered Paula, hand on Ness's shoulder. The group was close-packed except for Nathan, who strode confidently ahead.

"What makes you so confident?" asked Duster.

Nathan waved Navenstrae (which, if you didn't remember, was the name of his staff).

"This and magic. Trust me, you wouldn't want to be my nemesis."

Duster found him rather cocky, but decided not to comment. Anyone who owned a flaming dagger and could encase a tower in cursed rock as well as whatever else he could do was not someone he wanted to fight.

Suddenly an arrow flew for Ness's head; Paula had pulled him out of the way and it skewered a door at the end of the corridor.

"Returned the favor," she said, grinning. Ness grinned back despite the fact that an arrow had almost killed him.

Another one caught Kumatora's sleeve and caused her to stumble and fall; Duster caught her before she hit the ground (she actually smiled) and Nathan fired a bolt of energy at the next arrow, causing it to disintegrate. The culprit was revealed to be a teacher with a crossbow. A hasty "Molevihombrus" and the teacher shot away from them, dropping the crossbow.

"Noticed that the name is now 'Poison Wood?'" asked Ness.

"Poisonwood is a small tree with purple leaves. Dermal contact causes severe dermatitis," said Jeff. "Very nasty tree."

"In other words, touching it inflames your skin," said Nathan from up ahead.

"Ouch," said Ness.

They were ambushed several more times, by people wielding crossbows, swords, maces, halberds, lances, and more modern weapons such as machine guns (sub-machine guns included) and shotguns.

"How did they get these?" asked Ness, picking a machine gun up and slinging the strap over his head onto his shoulder after a particularly vicious assault culminating in a combo of Lucas and Duster's involving a heavy branch and a boot with a metal sole. "I thought they were...uh...I forget."

"Are you going to keep that?" asked Nathan, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. "You know, they have those where I'm from, too."

"Weird," said Ness. "But I'm not going to be doing any interdimensional travel yet. You might, but I don't. And yes, I'm keeping this. We could intimidate Maxwell with it, make him think somone got defeated."

"They did," said Duster, wiping the sole of his boot clean; it had gum and spit on it.

"True," said Ness. The gun felt strange in his hands, mostly because he had never used one like it.

"Here it is," said Tony. A very extravagantly decorated room was visible, even through two stained-glass windows.

Ness kicked the door open unecessarily, as nobody was in there except a few students who looked scared. Their eyes were not yellow.

"What's happening?" asked one. "Why do you have that?" She pointed at the gun in Ness's hands.

"Long story," said Jeff. "You're all being brainwashed by an unknown neurotoxin created by an alien race, get out of here while you can!"

"But we can't move. They've chained us into these chairs," pointed out a boy.

Ness used a few carefully controlled PSI M-Magnets to unlock the cuffs on the ends of the chains and the students managed to escape from them.

"Wait...stay with us for now," he said. "It isn't safe out there."

Another arrow punctuated his words, shooting between Lucas and Jeff's heads and landing with a THUNK in the security door with the label "Maxwell Green" on it.

Ness whirled around and pulled the trigger of the gun; a flurry of bullets peppered the ground around the shooter's feet. He raised the gun and shot the next arrow out of the air, and continuing his lucky streak, shot the crossbow and rendered it unusuable (the trigger was broken off and something in the inner mechanics of it messed up).

"Lucky," said Paula. "Lucky you didn't kill the person."

"I have good aim," argued Ness defensively, and nobody could argue; anyone who could shoot the ground around a person and suddenly, without letting go of the trigger, disable the enemy's weapon as well as shoot a projectile out of the air had good aim.

The security door burst open. A man stepped out. His eyes were yellow behind his horn-rimmed glasses.

"Maxwell!" gasped Jeff.

"That's right," smirked Maxwell, pressing a button on a small remote control. A large metal cage fell on them, but Nathan just caused it to break apart and disintegrate with a lazy wave of his hand. It was his turn to smirk.

"Uhh...I wasn't expecting that," said Maxwell. His smirk vanished.

"Aye, you weren't," said Nathan.

Maxwell grabbed a tranquilizer gun off of a rack on the wall in his office. He took aim at Lucas, who nabbed the hilt sticking out of Ness's backpack and deflected the dart with the sword. Another one, directed at Duster-in an amazing display of acrobatics, he deflected it with the metal sole of his boot-and another at Jeff-this one was vaporized by a laser.

"Not bad, not bad," said Maxwell.

"That was brilliant," said Ness. "Not 'not bad.'"

"But I can do better," argued Maxwell.

A blast of grayish energy rocketed from his palm and hit Ness. Immediately he started to turn to stone; Lucas used a strong PSI Heal and the transformation reversed itself.

"That's not fair at all!" shouted Ness.

"Magic beats PSI every time," taunted Maxwell, an aggravating note of superiority in his voice.

"You should have seen what PK Rockin' did to Rycoulth," said Nathan.

"You ARE going to see what PK Rockin' can do," grinned Ness. "PK Rockin'!"

He had shouted the words followed by thinking the Latin symbol AE for the first time in his life, and he was surprised by the power that coursed through him.

It was PK Rockin' Omega followed by the colored swirl of light that sucked in all the other light and PSI energy, and apparently magic too because Maxwell's second stone attack was absorbed by it as well.

BOOM!

The explosion rocked the building and caused Maxwell to fall over with a shriek of terror.

In the confusion, Nathan tossed some Magic Tarts into the air and Ness, Lucas, and Kumatora caught them.

("I'm going to do what I did for Duster. Heal me.")

When Maxwell recovered from the blast, Nathan muttered the same incantations he did when he healed Duster. He added a final incantation ("Amnesein") to the string of spells and Maxwell's eyes slid out of focus and then back in.

"PSI Heal!"

The triple heal caused Nathan ro recover from the spells.

"Thanks," he said. "Now we can do something about the students and teachers and guards."

"The entire school is brainwashed to kill us. How are we going to do anything?" asked Duster.

"It's a very complex-" began Nathan, but suddenly the phone in Maxwell's office rang.

A cheery tune played.

"A phone call already!" said Maxwell. "Only a few days since I got this new office-huh? What's with all these weapons?" He had stepped back into his office and noticed the weaponry hanging on the wall.

"He doesn't remember a thing," explained Nathan in a whisper. "At least, anything he did when he was under the control of...whatever did that."

"Probably the Escaryuba," said Ness, the machine gun hanging loosely from its strap.

Suddenly, machine gun fire was heard from behind them. They jumped out of the way as a student entered the room. There was a click as Maxwell hung up the phone-then it rang again. The student stopped firing.

"What...what am I doing? Why do I have this?" he asked. His eyes were green, not yellow.

"That tune," whispered Jeff. "It must have a reversing effect on the neurotoxin..."

* * *

Several minutes later, they had gotten hold of a tape recorder. Maxwell had used another phone to call his own, and Tony recorded the tune.

Soon they were outside of the office lobby and they were playing the tune in a room. Ness was struck in the palm by an arrow, Paula was grazed by a bullet, and Kumatora got a bit of a gash from a sword, but no injuries were serious and all were healed.

And then the whole school had heard the tune, and the cafeteria food was trashed (it was spiked with the neurotoxin), and they were standing outside the school. The headmaster was yet to be found, but Nathan said he would look for the headmaster. He explained that Rycoulth and Gygath would be back soon anyway, and he would have left only a little later. Boney was coming with him.

They exited the property and focused on their next destination: Threed.

"PSI Teleport!"

Ness's teleport PSI enabled them to charge through the snow and run off through the air, then they warped and found themselves submerged.

* * *

"Aarrrghh! The streets are flooded!" exclaimed Paula.

A cold hand reached up from the current and grabbed her by the wrist, tugging her under-

"No!"

Ness grabbed her around the middle with one arm and unsheathed the sword with the other. A head popped out from the water, and as Ness swung downwards the blade bit into the head and Paula wrenched her wrist free from the icy grip of the undead. The re-dead corpse fell with a splash back into the water.

They fought against the current of water and looked around in vain for a stack of crates as they waded through the streets. Duster kicked some zombies back, and Jeff shot a few with a laser, but for some reason they seemed to be converged around a large circus tent in the fields to the south.

"The circus tent!" said Paula. "Remember, Ness? King? We were on the roof of the hospital. I noticed it-I thought it was just for the traveling circus. But I was wrong..."

"Dead wrong," said Kumatora. "Look at all of them!"

("Too many!") said King.

"C'mon, let's keep looking," said Ness gruffly.

They waded through the streets, and finally-

"Here!" said Jeff.

They turned into an alley and found themselves looking at an enormous stack of crates. The water here was only about knee-deep because of a storm drain.

Ness and Lucas shoved aside the crates and they went into the much drier stack of crates. The crates were put back and they went into the door.

There were a few very dim lights on this time. Ness looked at Paula and Jeff and saw that they were scared-looking. He kept close to them.

The rain drummed on the roof.

THUNK.

They must have jumped a foot into the air, but a rat scampered away from the noise it had made.

"Just a rat knocking something over," sighed Kumatora.

"I don't think I've ever seen you scared," laughed Duster. Nervous laughter.

"It's creepy in here," said Kumatora.

"Nathan saved us from some creepy killer ghost," said Ness. "She's right to be scared, Duster."

"Thank you, Ness," said Kumatora.

"That's also the first time I've seen you thank someone," said Duster. Kumatora scowled slightly.

"It's true," mumbled Lucas.

She shook her head, as if warding off the words.

Nobody else knew it, but what Nathan and Duster had said had had an effect on her. Sometimes she thought before she spoke.

CRASH.

Creaak...

Another rat and the floorboards creaking beneath their feet startled them. Finally, after some wandering, they found the room with the bloodstains on the walls. Ness and Paula went over to the lockers for an actual search and not a confession of love, and Jeff went with them.

"What are you guys doing?" called Lucas, his voice trembling.

"We're hoping to find some clues in these lockers," said Ness. "Maybe a flyer or a pamphlet or even a script."

They searched the lockers, making banging noises that seemed louder than they would have been if the theater was in use.

"Found something," said Jeff after a minute.

"What is it?" asked Paula.

"It's...a key?" Jeff sounded confused.

"Wonder what it's for?" asked Ness.

("Maybe it's something in that room full of corpses,") said King darkly.

"Room full of corpses?" asked Kumatora.

("Down the stairs. They're covered by a big white panel,") said King.

Kumatora lifted the panel on the floor near her. Jeff walked over to her and took out the sonar device. He pressed the button, and about ten seconds later they heard Kumatora's gasp.

"There ARE corpses..." she muttered. "That's a bit of a shock..."

"What makes you say that, King?" asked Ness.

("Just a hunch,") responded King.

A nauseating odor floated their way.

"Ugh...rot," said Ness, waving it away.

King nabbed the key from Jeff's hands and rushed down the stairs. They heard him bark.

("It's disgusting, but it's safe! And there's a bunch of drawers with keyholes! Come down, maybe you can help me find one labeled 'Performances' or something like that...")

They went down the stairs, but Paula refused to move.

"I'm not going down there," she said.

"Alright, well, tell us if anyone's coming or anything weird happens," said Ness.

"This one's labeled 'Scripts' but I doubt it's actually in here, I think it's just spares," said Duster.

"This one says 'Actor Bios'...try this one, King," said Kumatora. King passed her the key and she opened the file. "Maybe there was another performance after it..."

"Sounds reasonable," said Jeff.

She pulled out the first bio.

"Name...age...gender..."

"Let me see that," said Ness. "Alright...there was a play...'The Conquerer Fruits'...That must mean..."

"Yes, it seems like it would be about Escaryuba...what character did he play?" asked Jeff.

"He played a man named Jeremy...apparently the leader of a revolution against the Escaryuba-a description, here, under this-"

"What was the player's name?" asked Lucas.

"Hmm..." Ness's jaw dropped. "Oh my God."

"What?" asked Kumatora.

"His name...was...Richard Pronch."

* * *

So Richard Pronch was a player...the name ring a bell?

There was a movie called "The Conqeror Worm" and I was thinking of that when suddenly..."The Conqeror Fruits" came to mind.

A bit of a short chapter, but the Escaryuba are gaining hold over one place after another...

Well? How did I do?

PLEASE REVIEW! I would like some feedback on this story.


	13. Lesbourne

Chapter 13: Lesbourne

This popped up in a dream a year or two ago. Now I've just decided to add it to this fanfic because it's relevant to the events of Chapter 8.

Although before Lucas, Kumatora, and Duster weren't in it.

* * *

"Aaah!"

Paula's scream startled them all; Ness rushed up the stairs, followed by Jeff.

"Hello, Ness."

Paula was standing there.

"Didn't you just scream?" asked Jeff.

"I was...er...practicing," she said, although Ness noticed her eyes dart from side to side.

"What's going on up here?" asked Duster, who was walking quickly up the stairs despite his bad leg.

"Apparently Paula was practicing screaming," said Jeff.

Kumatora came up the stairs next.

"Practicing screaming?" she said in a tone that showed she did not believe a word of it. "More likely something else happened..."

A note suddenly flashed into Ness's mind that said not to leave Paula alone and he mentally slapped himself in the face. He resolved never to leave Paula alone until Rycoulth and Gygath were gone.

Then he noticed something. Paula wore a ribbon in her hair, and usually it was pink like her dress. But something was different about it...maybe the fact that it was now blood-red.

Or maybe Ness was just seeing things...

"Uh...Paula? Why is your ribbon...er...blood-red?" he asked, pointing at it.

"I just wanted to try a change of color," responded Paula. Ness noticed that she did not quite meet his eyes as she said this.

"Let's get out of here," said Kumatora. "This place is giving me the creeps..."

Taking Pronch's file with them, they left the room. King charged up the stairs with Lucas just in time, and they all managed to get out.

"How about we head to Fourside?" asked Paula. "We haven't been there in forever."

"How about it, guys?" asked Ness.

"Uh...okay," said Jeff.

("Great, I've always wanted to go there!") exclaimed King happily. ("I mean, I've always wanted to go there again!")

"As long as we don't have to deal with any officers," said Kumatora. "They're a bunch of morons."

Duster nodded in agreement. "They're bigger morons than I am!" He grinned, and Kumatora and Lucas laughed. It was a long-standing thing of Wess's to call Duster a moron, and it had been done so many times it was now no more than a joke.

Ness, Paula, Jeff and King, who did not understand this, merely looked around at each other.

"Alright...PSI Teleport!" said Ness.

Ness used Teleport Alpha again, and they simply ran on the top of the water and across the desert in several seconds.

* * *

They landed on their feet this time, still running. They managed to slow down and stop, taking in their surroundings.

Ness was shocked to see that only one or two buildings were actually destroyed. He had thought the whole city had been destroyed by the Escaryuba.

He stopped a passing person and asked what had happened.

"What happened?" said the person.

"Why are those buildings destroyed?" he asked.

"Huh? ...Oh. The police say it was just crazed terrorists, but...I think it might have been something a little different. I saw a little banana with a face on it being carried away..."

"Thanks for your time," said Ness, and without another word he left the confused person and rejoined the group.

"So?" asked Jeff.

"The police are just saying it's crazed terrorists-" began Ness.

"A perfectly logical explanation," interrupted Paula.

"-but that person thinks it might have been something else," he finished. "Like the Escaryuba. They weren't mentioned by name, but that person said they saw a banana with a face on it being carried away," he added.

"That's a stupid idea. Of course they were terrorists," said Paula.

They all turned and looked at her.

"You idiot!" spat Kumatora. "Of course they were Escaryuba! What else? Don't you remember what Ness said back in that Threed place? About that vision of the Escaryuba attacking Fourside and saying what they planned to do to Lucas?"

Ness would have responded for Kumatora calling Paula an idiot, but something stopped him. Paula was being an idiot. Terrorists...as if. Not when he knew there were angry aliens flying around in space above Eagleland.

Paula looked right back at Kumatora.

"Nathan said that some visions were machine induced."

"He did," said Ness, "but I didn't feel weird or uneasy or have a nosebleed. At the very least I would have felt like I was sitting in a vibrating chair. Plus, it was all one vision, and the part about Lucas came true, so why not the first part?"

"He's right," said Lucas, sounding as if he had a bad head cold-he obviously hadn't spoken in a while.

("Paula, your skull is awfully thick today,") said King, with the air of one giving a compliment.

"I don't listen to unintelligent species," said Paula.

"Watch what you call my dog!" snarled Ness angrily.

And then it hit him full in the face.

The blood-red bow. The defiance at the notion that Escaryuba had attacked. Her avoiding their eyes when she spoke sometimes. The insult to King.

It could be just hormones, as they had discussed about Jeff's strange behavior, and in this case Ness would warn everyone to be careful, since Paula could use strong PSI.

It could be that someone was mind-controlling her or had hypnotized her.

Or maybe she was being impersonated.

If this was the true theory, he hoped it wouldn't be by the Escaryuba-the real Paula would be found lying mutilated in a snowdrift. His plan to test this would be to "accidentally" give her a small cut and see what color the cut was.

If it was by a Starman, then PK Thunder Alpha would do the trick-Starmen are metal, and act as lightningrods for PK Thunder and other moves, including the reflection of other lightning-based attacks. He would talk to Kumatora about this. Jeff had been found knocked out when they had found him. Paula could be knocked out in the old theater, lying in a locker or something.

And finally there was the option of human impersonation. Normally, the real Paula would be found tied up somewhere.

First, he planned to test the Escaryuba impersonation.

* * *

Later that day, they were in Jackie's Cafe for a drink and maybe a bite to eat-where Ness and Jeff had yet again encountered the Mani Mani statue, which had sent them into a fake world called Moonside and caused them to wander aimlessly around the back room for hours (according to a nearby mouse). After much wandering and much confusion, they had reached the Mani Mani statue and broken it to pieces.. Ness was sure it was still circulating from owner to owner, though-no doubt repaired. It had certainly reappeared as his own worst nightmare after the incident in Moonside.

He ordered a bit of steak, but allowed the knife to slip slightly and give Paula a small cut.

"Sorry!" he said hurriedly, taking a look at it. It was red. He healed the cut with a quick PSI Heal and returned to his food. Next to him, Lucas had managed to find an omelet on the menu with its cramped writing and was now scarfing it down hungrily.

* * *

"You really want me to do this?" whispered Kumatora. "Shoot a PK Thunder at you?"

They were on a wide, empty street and were taking a break from walking. Jeff felt sure his legs would collapse.

"It'll work," replied Ness. He held up the Franklin Badge and Kumatora gasped.

"Lucas has one of those," she muttered.

"That's strange...I thought there was only one," said Ness.

"Lucas's father Flint gave it to him. Flint says his father gave it to him and that his grandfather gave it to his father."

"But of course," said Ness. "That'd be me...remember what Nathan managed to find?" Kumatora nodded. "Alright, let's do this," he said.

They stood ten feet from each other. Kumatora used PK Thunder Alpha. The metal of the Franklin badge attracted the lightningbolt, but the little badge caused to lightning to reflect off of it and shoot up into the sky. It landed nowhere near Paula, instead hitting a rock and bringing it to life. The rock ambled away on two small stumps of legs.

"What were you doing?" asked Duster.

"Testing the Franklin badge," replied Ness without hesitation. He could lie well when he wanted to.

* * *

Finally, the time came to test the human impersonation. They were in the hotel.

"Alright...I need to stage an argument with you," said Ness to Duster. The others (except, obviously, Paula) now all knew of Ness' suspicions about Paula, and were not going to be surprised by an argument between Duster and Ness. "Then I need you to pretend to kick me in the head. Don't actually kick me. I want to make it look like I have amnesia."

They walked into the hotel room door, arguing about whether or not Fourside was a good place.

Duster staged a kick to Ness's head, and he staggered over to where Paula was, faking amnesia.

"Who are you?" he asked her.

"Paula," she said.

"Don't you have a last name?"

"Yeah. Polesbar."

Mistake one. Sure, her tongue could have slipped on the word.

"I mean, Polestar. Tongue slipped."

She did not meet his eyes and was not talking like Paula. Mistake two.

"How old are you?"

"Fourteen."

No lies there.

"And what do your parents do?"

"Er...they run a daycare center, but my dad is trying to get another job for the night because they need more money."

Ness did not know if she was lying or not. He did not know the Polestars' financial situation.

He went for the impression that the kick had addled his mind even more, and acted like a drunk man. This would require guts.

Jeff aimed the Gutsifier at Ness and pushed the button!

Ness's guts increased by 1500!

"You're...pretty. Do you have...do you have...are you going out...wif...wit...with anyone?"

"Uh...no," said Paula.

"AH-HA! shouted Ness, springing from his fake amnesia and pointing stereotypically. Then, in a lower voice, almost a whisper: "I'm sure the real Paula wouldn't have said that."

In response, "Paula" drew a long, thin katana.

"Alright," she whispered. "You've got me. But I've got your jugular."

She slashed upwards at Ness's throat, but Ness was pulled backwards. King and Lucas, who had grabbed him, distracted whoever this person was as Duster displayed a thief skill and snatched their pack and tossed it backwards. Jeff, knowing the person was human, could do nothing with lasers or explosives to hurt them-they would probably be killed. He went through the pack quickly-and shouted in surprise.

"I found it!" he yelled. "The blade Nathan was talking about!" He waved it in the air and tossed it to Lucas, who, in one fluid motion, took the hilt out of his own pack and leaped into the air, thrusting the hilt at the blade. The blade reattached to the hilt-and the air exploded.

It didn't, really, but it seemed that way. The burst of energy was so powerful everyone was thrown against the wall. The Paula impostor took advantage of this and lunged sideways with the katana, aiming for Duster-

"PK Freeze!"

Kumatora's PK Freeze attack hit the katana and caused it to fly out of the Paula impostor's hands away from Duster; Ness grabbed the ice-cold sword and jammed it in the wall as hard as he could. The Paula impostor kicked him very hard, and he crumpled to the ground. She yanked the sword out of the wall, but suddenly a large, forceful wave of energy shaped like a crescent moon flew forwards and slammed her against the wall. Duster whipped out some Wall Staples and pinned her down, even her feet.

They all wondered who had fired the wave of energy. At first, they thought it might have been Ness or Nathan-but Ness was still on the floor and Nathan was forbidden to go near them by a verbal contract they were sure he had been tricked into agreeing to.

Then they realized it was Lucas.

Lucas, holding a silver and gold hilt that shone brightly in the evening sun. Lucas, holding a hilt attached to a golden, gleaming blade that shimmered with psychic energy.

"Lucas...wow..." said Duster and Kumatora; Ness would have remarked too if he wasn't trying to rid himself of the pain between his legs from where the now-struggling impostor had kicked him. She had not managed to escape from the Wall Staples and was rather weak from the PK Crescent attack. Jeff had been almost no help. If the impostor was just a human with ninja skills, lasers and bazookas wouldn't do. He had, however, found the hilt. King had helped save Ness from having his jugular slashed open, Lucas had put the second sword back together-mostly (both gems were still nowhere to be found), Kumatora had saved Duster, who in turn had pinned the impostor with Wall Staples shortly after Lucas hit them with a PK Crescent.

"Right," said Kumatora, in place of Ness. "Who are you?"

"I'll tell you when I'm dead," rasped the impostor.

"When you're dead, you can't tell us, so that's a lie. Really, you're pinned to the wall and still fighting?" said Duster.

"They'll kill you all, no matter how much you fight," she replied. "The Escaryuba are all-powerful."

"How come we can defeat loads of them while they can't come close to killing us?" asked Lucas, who didn't seem very shy at the moment.

"It's a ploy," said the impostor. "They're developing armor as we speak. They'll be shielding themselves from all your attacks in no time. Even PSI."

She was probably speaking now because Ness was prodding her in the side with Hydra from where he knelt on the ground, and the blade was starting to shimmer like that of Lucas's sword.

"Where's Paula, then?" asked Jeff, getting up and walking towards them. They thought Ness would have asked that, but...okay.

"I dunno, find Pronch! He can tell you!"

"Richard Pronch was killed by the Escaryuba," said Ness.

"No, he wasn't! I know him personally!"

"You know an Escaryuba disguised as him. The real Richard Pronch is lying dead in the snow in Winters."

These words brought an expression of shock to the person's face. Now Ness could tell she was actually seventeen, like Kumatora. He wondered how she managed to look three years younger and quickly confused himself.

"What? No...no, you must be lying!" said the impostor.

"I saw his body," said Ness solemnly.

There was silence.

* * *

"So we're operating on what we know," said Duster later, outside the hotel, "and that's very little."

"That is exactly the case," said Jeff.

("We know they're called Lesbourne, and nothing else,") said King.

"We know that Paula might be back in that old theater or in Winters," said Kumatora.

Winters!

Suddenly Ness knew where Paula and Poo were without the vision that came next.

He was in an underground little chamber that was full of little green pods. Two of them were glowing again, full of the strange liquid.

Inside them were two very familiar people...

"We've gotta go to Winters," said Ness, awakening from his trance.

"Why?" asked Lucas.

"Because that's where Paula and Poo are. At Stonehenge. Under it, rather."

"Under it?" asked Jeff. "You don't mean...?"

Ness nodded. "That's exactly what I mean."

"Because I just figured out-and it was backed up by a vision-that they're at Stonehenge."

There was silence.

"Stonehenge?" said Duster. "What?"

"It's a place-archways of stone. Nobody knows how they were done. They're arranged in a circular pattern near the Andonuts Laboratory," said Jeff.

"And in the middle is an entrance to an underground chamber," said Ness. "It got buried, but I think PK Blast would open it back up."

("Paula and Jeff are at STONEHENGE!") yelped King. ("How did they even...?")

Ness shrugged. "Beats me."

"Are we going or not! Remember when Tony and my dad and everyone were in there?" exclaimed Jeff. "They didn't have much time left to live!"

They didn't have much time to live. Jeff was right.

"Alright, gather in a circle, like usual," commanded Ness. It was now common to do this, and within seconds: "PSI Teleport!"

They raced down the empty street and shot off into the air.

* * *

Meanwhile, in a different century, Nathan and Boney were practicing some more simple spells in a field.

"And you go forwards-focus, Boney-take your right front foot-stomp, yes, like that, into a deep stance-now, focus, relax, think hard about the spell-alright, you doing that? Good-now, take your left front foot and hold it up, like this-and say it with me, simple breaking spell-yes, that's how you hold your paw-Romperis!" Nathan was in a deep stance, his right knee bent and his right foot ahead of his left. His left leg was straight and his left foot was behind him. He held his left, mechanical hand out, the first segment of the fingers and thumb straight, the rest bent ninety degrees at the two joints.

("Romperin!")

A jet of gray light shot from Nathan's hand. Nathan's spell hit the target perfectly, and the boulder shattered into pieces. Boney's jet of red light missed by millimeters and his spell hit a tree, which exploded and flew backwards, causing a minor fire. Nathan repaired this damage (and his boulder) and stopped the fire.

"Alright, your aim was off, and you said the spell wrong-it's Romperis, with an 's.' You're getting better. Now, let's try again-stomp forwards, yes, think hard, focus, relax, hold up your left paw. Stare down your leg and aim-in the middle of your toenails, claws, whatever they're called, that gap is where you'll be hitting. Aim at the center of the boulder-Romperis!"

("Romperis!")

This time, a jet of gray light shot from both hand and paw. Nathan's spell hit the boulder dead-center, and this time Boney's spell did too. Both boulders shattered.

"Perfect! You've made good progress today-first, your aim was off and you kept saying the incantation wrong and you were unable to perform the spell. Then, you managed to perform it, but you said the incantation wrong and missed. Then you said the incantation correctly a few times and hit the target, perfect shots-and then you messed up the incantation two more times, the second time you missed, and then finally you're doing it right again. Try again, just a few more times-remember, it's Romperis, aim between your claws, in the middle, focus, relax, think hard."

This time, Boney performed it with little instruction from Nathan. The fifth time he performed it without any help at all.

"Well done!" said Nathan. "So, you know a fireball spell, a minor healing spell, a short-range teleport-you've got the hang of those-and then there's this, the basic breaking spell, and also there's a repairing spell-you'll learn that tomorrow-and also a spell to throw things away from you and one to bring them to you. That's the rest of this week-repairing, throwing things away from you, and bringing them to you. Now, go home and rest, and here's a doggie treat. You deserve it for all your hard work."

Boney took the treat, thanked Nathan, and went home to his doghouse, practicing the breaking spell on rocks along the way.

As he munched the treat in his doghouse, watching the setting sun from the opening, he could have no idea that his friends back in Eagleland would soon be in mortal peril.

* * *

Ness shifted aside some more snow and used PK Blast to remove dirt.

"Try PK Ground, Kumatora," suggested Lucas.

Ness stepped back from the spot.

"PK Ground!" shouted Kumatora. A ball of energy flew from her palms and hit the ground. It cracked open with a loud noise that split the air.

They realized that the base had been moved even deeper than before, but it did not deter them from going to save their friends. Duster whipped out the Wall Staples and climbed down, making a ladder for the rest of them. The group descended the ladder into the base.

It was dark and dank down here, and there was a faint odor of rotten fish, but nobody really cared. They were hell-bent on getting to Paula and Poo.

It was then that Jeff noticed the Starman nearby. He took out his laser and shot its head. The Starman exploded in a burst of sparks.

"PK FIRE."

A metallic voice sounded from nearby. Ness tried PSI Shield Omega, effectively shielding everyone with a strong forcefield that reflected the fire and sent it back at the Starman. The Starman flickered and vanished, reappearing when the fire had passed. It lunged with what Ness realized was a spiked, iron mace, swinging for Ness-

"PK Counter!" shouted Lucas, diving in front of Ness and causing a wall of orange hexagons and deflect the Starman's blow. The mace flew backwards and smashed the Starman's head. It exploded with a metallic bang.

"That's bound to draw more of them. C'mon," said Duster. They hurried away from the spot.

The strange, spongy ground with its many twists and turns confused them, but they found the door eventually. There was a ladder, and the group descended it-and found themselves in the middle of a group of Super Starmen and some strange black phantom starmen.

Lucas reacted quickly. He erected a counter and a shield around the group, and Kumatora and Ness followed suit. The many PSI attacks richocheted away from them.

"PK STARSTORM!"

"PK ROCKIN'!"

"PK LOVE!"

("PK SILVER!")

Meteors sent by both smashed through the ceiling, leaving large holes through which wintry sunlight streamed. The meteors bounced off of the shields but destroyed them, leaving a weak PK Counter around the group and nothing at all around the Starmen. PK Rockin' took effect, slashing and exploding. The AE version caused another explosion of light and energy. PK Love followed it, washing over the Starmen and crushing them into tin cans after PK Rockin'. The remainder were hit by silver lightning streaking through the holes in the ceiling.

"Come on, they're bound to be more," said Ness. They sprinted down wall-less segments of floor, and Ness was suddenly aware of the Earth Pendant around his neck glowing. Jeff had a Water Pendant, and Jeff was aware of that glowing as well.

Finally, they came to a door.

Lucas twisted the knob and it opened with a creak.

They gasped in shock; Paula and Poo were suspended in green liquid. Their eyes were open, however, suggesting they were still conscious.

("Ness! Jeff! Lucas! King! Kumatora! Duster!") exclaimed Paula, calling each of their names.

("We meet again,") said Poo. In the large tube, he was smiling slightly.

("Guys! There's a Starman-") began Paula.

She didn't need to warn them. The door on the opposite end of the room splintered, and a large, spiky Starman walked out. His visor twisted upwards wickedly.

"Hello, Earth-BZZT!-lings. I see you've-BZZT!-found me and my-BZZT!-little friends! Well-BZZT!"

"Can't you stop doing that? Go drink a glass of water," said Kumatora. It did sound indeed as if he had a case of the hiccups. The Starman scowled.

"You've-BZZT!-interrup-BZZT!-ted our-BZZT!-little-BZZT!-tea party! Now-BZZT!-feel-BZZT!-my-BZZT!-WRATH!

The Super Starman Deluxe whipped out a pair of electric maces.

The Super Starman Deluxe attacked.

* * *

PLEASE REVIEW! No, the caps aren't for pitiful begging. Just so people notice them. 181 hits, no reviews. The first person gave a review (thanks to Oh-My-God-They-Killed-Kenny, The-Exile, and It'sOver9000ish for the reviews!).

Starmen can use weapons now. Yeah.

Next chapter: The Ocean Floor

I know there's supposed to be an epic battle. Don't worry. I won't disappoint you.

Kumatora: We've already been to the ocean floor!

Me: But the Eaglelanders haven't. Go along with the story before I slip the dead fish that sometimes occur around my pond into your pie. (I saw a picture of that one time. It was a pie with dead, eyeless fish baked into it, and they were poking out from the crust. Eww.)

Siochain! (That means "Peace" in Irish.)

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	14. The Ocean Floor

Chapter 14: The Ocean Floor

Lucas: I hate Tanetane Island.  
Me: Yeah, well, I'm the one writing the story.  
Dumb Clone of Lucas: I LUV TAINTAIN ISLAND!  
Me: See? He likes it.  
Lucas: WTF? A clone! O_O Me: O_O

And now for the actual story. Which I own. But I don't own any of the characters or claim to own them. I don't own Tanetane Island, Eagleland, Threed, anywhere except the other dimension where Nathan comes from. Speaking of Nathan, I do own him. And any other characters that I make up, such as Rycoulth, the Escaryuba, and Gygath. I don't own the grass in Onett, either.

Everyone: Zzzzz...

Alright, I've bored them into sleeping, so now read about stuff in the past tense.

* * *

"Oh, great," said Kumatora. "You're telling me they can hold stuff with those tentacles?"

The Super Starman Deluxe swung for her head and she ducked under the mace.

"PK-BZZT!-STARSTORM!"

"PSI Shield!"

"PK Counter!"

Paula and Ness used two different versions of group shields, and Lucas tried PK Counter. The meteors were not as effective as normal, but the Omega Starstorm did injure them.

"PK Sta-"

"No, Poo!" shouted Ness. "Remember last time?"

"I do not," replied Poo.

"You tried Starstorm and it bounced off the thing's shield! It hit US instead of it!"

A realization dawned in Poo's eyes, and instead he drew the Sword of Kings and lunged forwards. He was thrown back, but landed on his feet.

"Silly humans! Master-BZZT!-Gygath has given me more-BZZT!-than just a-BZZT!-shield! You-BZZT!-cannot hurt me!" cackled the Starman.

Ness, forgetting about Hydra, took out his baseball bat. Lucas took out a heavy-looking branch. Paula took out her frying pan, Poo brandished his sword, Jeff took aim with a laser, Duster stretched his legs, and Kumatora simply cracked her knuckles. King growled and prepared to charge.

They rushed forwards in a combined attack, attempting to break the shield. Jeff's laser streaked alongside them.

The group bounced off the shield, but noticed it begin to falter.

"It's breaking!" shouted Kumatora. "Try it again!"

"PK FIRE!"

The wave of flame shot towards them, and they threw themselves onto the ground to avoid it. Jeff swapped his laser for a bazooka and fired as they got up again and charged once more.

They hit the shield again, and the added force of the missile and small explosion caused it to begin to fade.

Lucas remembered the golden sword in his pack and took it out. Seeing this, Ness remembered Hydra and took that out.

United, the two of them ignored the others and thrust the twin blades at the shield.

With a tremendous explosion, the shield shattered like the boulders Nathan and Boney had hit. The blades did not stop, however, and they hit the electric maces. The power of the thrust was such that the maces simply flew out of the Starman's tentacles.

It was agile, however, and snatched them out of the air, swinging downwards at Ness and Lucas. They blocked the deadly weapons and stepped back, mirroring each other's movements. The Starman began to attack in different ways with each tentacle. While Ness parried a blow, Lucas was forced to do a sort of pirouetting leap into the air to dodge another.

Finally, Jeff had the sense to intervene. He fired a laser at one of the maces, causing it to fly backwards with a clang. The Starman's empty tentacle whipped Ness across the face, and Jeff took advantage of the Starman's confusion to run up to it and stab it in the side with an HP-Sucker.

The little machine drained the Starman's health and distributed it to the group until the Starman yanked it out of its metallic exterior and threw it like a dart at Lucas, who was trying to fend off an exceptionally strong tentacle holding an electrified mace. Ness, who had a free hand and nothing attacking him, used PSI M-Magnet to draw the HP-Sucker towards himself and jabbed the Starman in the middle with it, hitting its tentacles with Hydra as to not stop the health drain.

Poo tried his Mirror ability, and managed to turn himself into the Super Starman Deluxe. He walked up to the real Starman and caused more confusion on the mostly-mechanical creature's part. Then he tried PK Thunder Omega, hitting the Starman four consecutive times with lightning. Duster walked up behind Poo, and when Poo turned back into himself he stepped to the side. Duster kicked the stunned Starman in the chest, the rubber interior of his boot blocking the electricity conducted by the metal sole. Kumatora followed up with two punches to the Starman and King simply used PK Silver.

This time, it came in the form of a barrage of white balls of energy which hit the Starman and exploded. The Starman retaliated with PK Freeze Omega, causing King to fall over, frozen in a block of ice. Paula tried PK Thunder Gamma, but from a range it wasn't as accurate and only one strike hit. Four strikes came from the Starman, hitting Paula, Jeff, Lucas (who was still fighting the Starman alongside Ness), and Ness. King was defrosted by a PK Fire sent over him by Kumatora. The Starman dodged the fire.

Ness and Lucas stepped back from the Starman, singed.

"PK Love!"

"PK Rockin!"

("PK Silver!")

And all of their voices, although they were not aware of saying it:

"PK Lightstorm!"

Multicolored light swirled around the Starman, trapping it and blocking its PSI Then white light erupted in the center, damaging the Starman. The multicolored light suddenly swirled very close to it, and then it was not even it circle, it had all collided-

BOOM!

There was an enormous explosion like that at the end of PK Rockin' AE. Then white light was swirling around the Starman, and silver lightningbolts were jumping through the center of the ring of light, hitting the Starman, and a large bolt of blue, red, and yellow light struck it as the silver bolts continued to hit it. The ring of white light became smaller and smaller until finally it hit the Starman.

BOOM!

Another large explosion, this time made of white light, shook the floor. Silver light swirled this time, and multicolored bolts of light arced through the ring. A large bolt of white lightning struck twice as many multicolored bolts still hit the Starman. The silver light came closer and closer-

BOOM!

The resulting blast shook the floor, but it was nothing compared to what happened next.

All three types of light erupted into being from nowhere and blew a hole in the ceiling and blasted the walls into oblivion.

Wintry sunlight poured down into the room, illuminating the finally beaten Super Starman Deluxe as it lay on the floor.

"Whoa," was all they could manage-any of them.

* * *

"Glad that's over," said Ness as they trekked back through the gloomy darkness of the reactivated-and re-deactivated-Starman base.

"That meteor almost killed me," muttered Kumatora.

"We had a shield," reasoned Lucas, trying to keep the peace.

"But still."

They climbed up the ladder and back into the spongy maze which had lights that were really bioluminescent organisms. However, as they emerged into the sunlight, they saw something peculiar.

What was that hanging from one of the stone monuments?

A rotting mouse, almost paper-thin, nailed to the huge stone by its tail.

"That's awful," whispered Paula.

"It's their sign, Paula," said Ness. "Remember the Sky Runner?"

A rotting mouse just like this one had been nailed on the doorframe, danging down into the doorway.

Paula nodded.

"Whose sign?" asked Poo.

"The Starmen-at least, I think it's theirs. One of those was nailed to the doorframe where Jeff was attacked by a Starman," replied Ness.

Poo noticed a small bite wound in the mouse's side.

"Was it bitten by something?" he asked, examining the mouse.

"Yeah," said Ness. "Now that I think about it...it did."

"A bite wound...thin...Ness...Poo...the Starmen have something to do with the Escaryuba..." said Paula.

"What are you talking about? What are the Escaryuba?" asked Poo.

Ness had forgotten. Poo had been in Dalaam, where no news of the outside world reached and even aliens from outer space couldn't find for a long time. But if Paula was right-and Ness was sure she was-then the Starmen and Escaryuba were allied and the Escaryuba would certainly know of Dalaam, where the Starmen had previously unleashed strange orbs that had only mouths and blew up if you killed them as well as floating lips called Kisses of Death. (He also remembered purple floating lips in Magicant called French Kisses of Death-not a pleasant way to get killed. He wondered why they were in his imagination.)

"They're little aliens," said Paula. "They're like banana peels, but they're alive, and they have mouths, but they've also got little mouths in the middle of their peels...feet...whatever those are...that they use to suck everything out of a living creature."

"I remember now," said Poo. "Yes...it was when I came to help you against those people. We were forced to escape by jumping out of the lab, but that creature bit Ness."

Ness nodded and pointed to his cheek. "Right there," he said.

All of a sudden, the enormous stone monuments began to glow. Blue spheres of energy formed between the two vertical pillars on each monument and were linked to each other by a rod of the same type of energy as the spheres.

"W-what's happening?" asked Lucas, looking around.

"We're trapped!" shouted Kumatora.

Then they realized that a blue disc-like object was forming in midair above their heads. They stepped away from it, unsure what would come out of the portal. Would it be Rycoulth? Gygath? Or an Escaryuba learned in magic? They hoped it would be Nathan and Boney, but couldn't be sure.

A brown form fell from the portal and landed in their midst. Lucas recognized it first.

"Boney!" he gasped.

("Come on, this is urgent, no time to explain,") panted the brown dog. Duster noticed he was wearing the orange bandanna that he had worn three years ago, when they were searching for Hinawa in the Sunshine forest.

"See that bandanna? It's urgent, he's right," said Duster. Kumatora and Lucas recognized it too, although they had never seen the dog wear it. They had heard the tale from Duster.

Duster, Kumatora, and Lucas went into the portal, which had lowered to the ground. The rest reluctantly followed.

* * *

A sensation like they were being flung through space...being wrung out like a washrag...then being shot out of a gun...and quite suddenly, they were lying on sand.

"W-what?" asked Ness. "Where are we?"

"You're on Tazmily Beach," replied a voice.

Nathan waved a hand, and they levitated into the air and landed on their feet.

"Let me get to the point. The Escaryuba have taken control of Tanetane Island," he explained.

"Couldn't you handle that?" asked Kumatora.

"Under normal circumstances, yes," replied Nathan. "But these, clearly, are not normal circumstances. Quite the opposite.

"Now, teleporting to the island is usually possible, as is traveling there by vehicle or swimming. But now, it's impossible to do any of those things. You reappear about a foot from your original location if you try to teleport, vehicles spring leaks, and swimmers are thrown out of the water by something.

"We need to transverse the ocean floor."

This was met by silence from the Eaglelanders.

"Wait," said Ness after a long pause. "You're telling me we're supposed to walk across the bottom?"

"Yes," said Nathan. "I am aware that you four have already done this?" He looked at Lucas, Kumatora, Duster, and Boney. They nodded. "There are breathing machines that look like...well, mermen wearing lipstick with bad hairdos. Some people who have looked into the water on clear days and seen them claim that they are alive and looking around. You girls shouldn't have a problem with it-but us guys..." He trailed off and looked at the guys.

"The point is, we have to go along the ocean floor. There will be a lot of danger once we reach the island. Escaryuba are going to be everywhere, and there will probably be chimeras. Rycoulth may have created a clone of himself, and Gygath may have as well. They both know strong magic and PSI, respectively. We might get killed, or we could be tortured or weakened, strained to our breaking points. Are you guys ready?"

They nodded.

"Are you sure?"

"As long as we are together, we have the strength, determination, intelligence, ability, and speed to overcome or escape any obstacle that may stand in our way," said Poo.

Nathan nodded. "Well put." He stepped into the water and was soon gone beneath the waves. The rest of them followed.

* * *

The breathing machines were just as Nathan described them. However, he explained that they were not needed.

("I've got an oxygen spell, don't worry,") he said.

Just then, a fish tail came out of nowhere and hit Nathan on the side of the head. His eyes drifted out of focus.

The breathing machine pointed to its own lips.

Nathan's voice came, but it was rather distant and interrupted.

("It's part of-Rycoulth's humor. He-likes to embarass-people. Boney-try the spell-you just learned!")

Boney knew which spell he was talking about. He stomped forwards with his right foot and focused quickly upon the spell. He took aim with his left paw, lining up the target betweem his claws.

The breathing machine grabbed for Lucas-

("Romperis!")

A jet of gray light shot through the water and hit the breathing machine's head. It broke into pieces, but the machine still pointed to where its lips had been. Ness jammed Hydra into where its legs would have met the body (if it had legs) and there was a wail and a minor explosion, which consisted mostly of a strong current and no heat. They left the ruins of the breathing machine.

They encountered several electric eels, which did not attack but merely snapped at nearby fish-chimeras. The first fish-chimera that attacked was eaten by a large eel, and the eels quickly learned that the fish were drawn to the group. From then on the eels followed them.

("Another one!") moaned Kumatora. The breathing machine grabbed Paula and was about to kiss her, but Duster aimed a very strong kick at the side of its head faster than Ness could hit the machine with his bat and it shattered from the sheer force of it.

They continued on, Ness with his arm around Paula in case of another breathing machine.

Suddenly, something large swimming overhead cast a shadow.

("Ignore it! Keep going!") shouted Nathan telepathically.

They followed his instructions, continuing. They saw another breathing machine, and this one was destroyed in advance by Jeff. Nathan kept refilling their supply of oxygen using a simple spell, so the machines were unecessary.

The eels ate several more fish, and were devouring another when a lion's head and a goat's head emerged from the ground, attached to one body. It had gills along the necks, and the goat had long, hard horns that Jeff thought could have been made of keratin. It was revealed to have the wings of a giant eagle and the hindquarters of a goat, followed by a snake for a tail. Behind it came another head-the head of a man. It had a leathery, scaly back and hindquarters, coupled with dragon wings, and the chest and front legs of a lion as well as the sides. It had a large scorpion tail, complete with stinger, and a set of lobsterlike claws.

A true chimaera and a manticore had emerged from the sand-modified to live underwater.

They had thought Nathan would have sprung into action, but after a minute spent in a silent staring contest with the monsters he thought-spoke.

("I think Ness and Lucas should fight this one,") he said. ("Just them.")

Uncertain, Ness and Lucas stepped forwards, holding Hydra and the golden blade, respectively. Lucas took the chimaera and Ness took the manticore (Lucas was upset fighting things that had human features; the Masked Man was an example),

And the deadly beasts attacked.

Ness lunged at once for the manticore's throat; it dodged the attack and snatched Hydra out of his hands with a claw. It swallowed the blade whole, but there was a blinding flash and the sword burst out of the creature's mouth, giving it a nasty gash to boot.

Lucas, on the other hand, waited for the chimaera's attack. The chimaera went for him almost immediately. He dodged the biting attack and drove the sword at the beast's side, but the thing actually deflected the attack with its hoof.

Ness slashed the manticore lightly across the face and it stabbed for his waist with a closed claw. He ducked and drove the sword upwards into the claw, although it caused only a minor injury. The manticore retaliated with a powerful blow to the head. Ness partially shielded himself with PSI Shield, but the attack hit him anyway.

Lucas remembered PK Crescent and was about to use it when a voice came into his head.

("It's more than just a PSI-channeler, you know. It channels your inner power. Go on, try.")

It was a woman's voice, and he was quite sure Nathan could not do impersonations. He was also sure he was not just hearing things.

He focused strongly upon something, and his mind settled on a beam like that of Navenstrae (which is, again, Nathan's staff).

Lucas pointed the blade at the chimaera with both hands.

At once, the blade glowed and a small orb appeared at the tip. It grew larger and larger until suddenly a beam of golden light shot from the end of the sword. It hit the chimaera with a loud BOOM, as if breaking the sound barrier.

Ness had no idea what Lucas had done, but the manticore lunged for him and he moved forwards into the thing's chest as the claws met behind him. As he drew back, delivering a blow from the hilt to the claws and forcing them to seperate. It turned out that Ness had attacked the manticore when he had moved forwards. The beast roared madly, the sound reverbrating through the water. He unleashed a blast of PK Crescent, causing a shockwave to erupt from the blade as well. The manticore was hit full-on by the crackling blast and was thrown into a rock. It collapsed to the ground.

Lucas tried PK Crescent as well, whipping the blade diagonally downwards and hitting the chimaera with the resulting wave of energy. The chimaera collapsed to the ground.

It was over. The two monsters faded from sight.

They turned back to the group, but Nathan was the only one not staring at Lucas. He merely grinned and pointed at something behind them.

Two glittering jewels were lying on the seafloor, glowing brightly. The swords were, too.

Ness picked up the one that had appeared where the manticore had collapsed. It was golden and fit perfectly into the hilt of Hydra.

Lucas picked up the silvery gemstone and examined it closely. He jammed it into the hilt of the golden sword and there was a blinding flash. Ness, at the same time, placed the gemstone he was holding into Hydra's hilt. There was another blinding flash.

BOOM!

Anyone watching from the surface would have seen light flashing, but under the water it was a whole different scene. Illuminated by Navenstrae and two jars with coal and wood in them which had had PK Fire blasted into them, they could see how puny everything around them was as the two newly enhanced swords shimmered and caused waves of energy to flow through the water.

("Awesome,") said Ness.

("Awesome,") agreed Lucas.

* * *

The twin blades were still a mystery, but at least they were complete. However, there were more pressing matters to attend to.

They still had to deal with Master Edy.

Master Edy was a blue entity that lived at the bottom of the ocean. He created whirlpools and the like, and was very powerful.

But for some reason Nathan seemed to be on first-name terms with him, and Master Edy let them pass.

"I see you know Nathan. You see, before, I did not know your purpose"-as he said this, he pointed to Lucas, Kumatora, Duster, and Boney-"and acted quite rashly, assuming you were out to destroy the ocean. I apologize for that."

("It's alright,") said Lucas. ("I understand how you feel.")

Master Edy nodded and let them pass.

But there were other breathing machines.

They were able to destroy the first few in advance, but right as the land began to slope upwards a breathing machine jumped out from behind a rock. It had strikingly blue eyes and grabbed Kumatora. It was too fast for all of them and put its lips to Kumatora's.

But it did not seem to supply oxygen. Kumatora seemed as if she was choking.

Nathan slapped himself in the forehead and pushed back his hair, as if saying "Of course!"

Duster's eyes flashed-or maybe Paula imagined it-and he kicked the merman hard in the waist, causing it to snap.

Nathan muttered "Molevihombrus!" and he levitated her to the shore, where he attempted a spell.

Nothing happened, so he tried one that would at least temporarily prevent death.

"That's a very strange thing," he said at last.

"What is?" asked Jeff.

"It appears that we can't use magic or PSI to revive her, and there happens to be a cow there."

A cow was now standing on the edge of the jungle, watching them.

"Don't tell me we have to milk it?"

"We have to milk the cow, yes, Jeff."

* * *

One milking later...

"That didn't make much sense," said Jeff. "We milked a cow and Kumatora was revived?"

"It must be Gygath's idea of a joke or a test. Placing someone in mortal danger and then making the others with them do something ordinary that they wouldn't have thought of normally. Unless they weren't ordinary," said Nathan. "I suppose the cow was enchanted."

"This Gygath's got a sick sense of humor.. I could have died," argued Kumatora.

"So now what?" asked Ness, ignoring Kumatora.

"We're going to see if we can stop these guys. I bet it was Rycoulth who let them into this time..." replied Nathan.

"There's an invisible barrier that we can't cross unless we eat some mushrooms," pointed out Lucas.

"I know that, Lucas."

"I'm allergic to mushrooms," said Paula.

Ness remembered when they had first met. Paula had had a severe reaction to being mushroomized by the Ramblin' Mushrooms.

"We can bypass that. Nobody ever said you could teleport to another spot on the island," said Nathan. "I doubt that they'd just let us teleport into the base, though. They must have figured out that we would come here eventually, and they've probably got multiple barriers to stop us from teleporting into their territory."

He spun on the spot and vanished in a blue flash, reappearing on the other side of the barrier.

"Come on," he said. "We've got a job to do."

* * *

I got lazy and didn't feel like writing a long, elaborate scene with Kumatora being unconscious. Meh.

Trivia!

- Nathan was originally called Seth. But I named a cardinal in a fiction (not a fanfiction, something I came up with) Seth, so...name change!

- My first plan for Chapter 13 was an elaborate lava pit scene in which Duster almost dies and Kumatora uses PK Ground to drain the lava, and Ness tries that magnet PSI to stop Duster from moving (he's chained to a wall that's sliding downwards, and chains are metal). The lady with the zombies would have returned.

- I made an animation a few years ago on my old Windows 98 that I completely forgot about (obviously, I've got a new computer) until my monitor broke recently (I have to use a big, bulky one), and it was really long. Part of it included the Lesbourne incident from Chapter 13, and it included the Escaryuba (originally called the Eyuscacaba aliens, then the Eyuscababa, and Escuyaba, and all sorts of stuff because I kept forgetting the name until I finally settled on Escaryuba).

- I originally planned for Ness and Kumatora to be the only ones left because it wasn't a vision Ness had...it was real. Animal control got Paula, Jeff, Lucas, King, Boney, and Duster (because he looks kinda blond, but in this fanfiction he isn't). Then they had to rescue the rest of them. But I changed it to a vision and made Ness warn them, thus enabling them to escape.

PLEASE REVIEW! Yak, yak, yak, feedback, yak yak yak.

Jeff: So what's the next chapter called?  
Me: Wait, I've got some more notes...WAIT A MINUTE! I thought Duster was supposed to say that!  
Jeff: I bribed him.  
Me: You do that a lot. You did that in someone else's fanfic! Get out of here!

Alright...next chapter: Bladestorm X

It sounds cool. Come on! It does!


	15. Bladestorm X

Chapter 15: Bladestorm X

Aurgh! This is an awful chapter name. Heh, it's not exactly about a bladestorm. Sure, it happens-but I should have called it something else.

Whoa! Chapter 15 already! I'll keep this going for a while, maybe to chapter 20 or 21, or even 22 if people want an explosive climax and then a calm resolution.

And then for the sequel...which will be awesome.

Thanks, GirlofNintendo and Father the Primed Guy for the reviews for Chapter 13! Heck, I'd write more and a sequel just because I'm glad of reviews!

Oh, yeah, I'M NAMING THE VISIONS! So, if you have an idea for the name, submit a review or PM me. I'm getting tired of saying "the visions." I can't think of a name, though, and all the names I think of are confusing to some people, like Neuroptical Analomies. I understand that, but would the average person?

Dumb Clone of Lucas: I WUB DYING!  
Me: [Uses author powers to kill off the dumb clone.] Jeez. Hey, where did the disclaimer go? Oh, here it is:

I do not own any of the characters or locations in this story, save for Nathan, Rycoulth, Gygath, the Escaryuba, and fictional locations that do not exist in a fictional world that doesn't exist either. (So Nathan's dimension technically exists?) I just tied strings to their arms and legs and forced them to do this stuff. Okay, that was a lie.

The events, locations and people in this fanfiction are fictional. Any similarity to a real person (save for me), event or place is purely coincidental.

Remember! Hydra = Ness's sword, Navenstrae = Nathan's staff!

* * *

Nathan took the bladed end of Navenstrae and made a vertical slash through the air. There was a noise like breaking glass and a creature fell out of nowhere to land at Nathan's feet.

"Just as I thought. We're not going to be able to see these unless we eat those mushrooms."

Lucas picked one up.

"We're going to be all confused and disorientated," he complained.

"If we eat them, yes," said Duster, "but there might be a way around it."

"I don't think there is," said Kumatora.

"Why not?"

"I dunno...I've just got this feeling."

"We can warp across the barrier, but we can't see these creatures," reasoned Jeff. "Idea! What if only a few of us ate the mushrooms and those people could keep watch."

Nathan nodded slowly. "That might just work."

"But who's going to eat them?" asked Paula.

They looked at her, as if scorning her for not volunteering.

"Weren't you paying attention last chapter when I said I was allergic?"

They shook their heads no and Lucas slowly raised his hand into the air. Jeff and Nathan also did.

"Nathan!" exclaimed Ness. "Aren't you supposed to be protecting us from stuff or something?"

"Well...not exactly. I don't really have to...I just interfere with stuff sometimes. I wasn't thinking straight when I was twelve. I had dreams of glory. And then I found Navenstrae...and sometimes I get urges to do stuff that might make me famous."

He frowned.

"It's a terrible habit of mine. Besides, who else would volunteer?"

Nobody moved except Jeff, who tossed Nathan a mushroom.

"Are you guys ready?" asked Duster.

The three holding the mushrooms nodded.

"Alright. Three...two...one...go!"

They ate the mushrooms.

"Magic Cake!" shouted Jeff.

"What!" exclaimed Paula.

"Magic Cake! I know what's in it now! These mushrooms are what make it like having weird drugs in it! It's just like when I ate the Magic Cake at first!"

Ness knew what he meant by "at first." He had had a vision of Poo coming to meet them, which was what he wanted most at the moment: the final person.

He wondered vaguely what Jeff had seen.

"Indeed," said Poo. He had been so quiet everybody had forgotten about him.

Jeff and Lucas walked through the barrier.

"Dad?" said Lucas.

"That's not your dad, don't be stupid, Lucas," said Kumatora.

Lucas shook his head. "Of course! They did this last time!"

He swung the heavy branch he carried downwards at something. A large face was visible for a second, shrieking in agony, and then it was gone.

Ness, Paula, King, Boney, Duster, Kumatora, and Poo warped across the barrier to join their friends, and they set off on a trek through the jungle.

It was rather painful, but Ness and Paula were hit with a wave of nostalgia as they took in their surroundings. The mosquitoes swarmed them in huge spherical clouds, stabbing the PSI Shield with their tiny proboscises. The occasional PK Fire caused them to explode in flame. The jungle was filled with the sounds of animals, and it was raining. Lucas, Nathan, and Jeff occasionally stopped entirely and lunged for something with their weapons. The face was seen repeatedly, and it began to haunt Paula. There was something familiar about that face.

"Ness, do you get that feeling we've seen that face somewhere before?" she asked him in a whisper.

"Nope," replied Ness. "Never."

"Take a close look the next time-"

And this time, the face was right in front of them, sticking its tongue out and making demonic grins.

It did not leave, and soon the demonic grin stuck.

It screamed loudly in their faces, making garbled noises.

Ness realized where he had seen that face before.

"Go back to hell, Mani Mani!" he roared.

In one swift movement, he drew Hydra from his backpack and cleaved the great face in two. The blade glowed brightly, a sort of halo surrounding it.

Mani Mani's face spewed green slime everywhere, screaming horribly-

BOOM!

It exploded in a clash of light and shadow, leaving a glowing aura where it had been. But this light was good, symbolizing triumph of good over evil.

"Oh my God," said Nathan quietly.

"What was that?" asked Poo. "What foul being dares-"

"That was Mani Mani, a demon," growled Nathan. "Whatever the hell they're doing on this island-"

("It was here before,") said Boney. ("Posing as different people in our lives.")

"It tried to make me think Wess had apologized to me," said Duster, a tear appearing in the corner of his eye. He rolled up his pants leg, and clearly visible was a long scar that looked as if it had been deep and had taken a long time to heal.

"When I was just six, I...I was training. Thief training. There was an obstacle course. But a spinning blade trap...two of them closed in on me, and it was too late for this leg. I got this-right down to the bone. You could have seen the bone if you had looked-it even put a slash in the bone. I fell in the river right after that, because it was the end of the course right next to the river. I almost drowned-the wound got infected, too. Very painful."

"Evil," snarled Nathan. "Just evil."

And, at least for Ness, the world faded.

* * *

He and Lucas were standing at the head of the group, gripping Hydra and the golden blade.

A large Escaryuba stood in front of them, decked out in armor.

"PK Crescent!" shouted Lucas.

The PSI bounced off on the armor and flew over Lucas's head.

Nathan fired a bolt of energy from Navenstrae, but that bounced off too.

Ness thrust Hydra at the armor. There was a clanging sound and the blade bounced off of the armor.

"Romperis!" shouted Nathan and Boney simultaneously.

Two jets of gray light bolted towards the Escaryuba and the temporary break in the shield caused by reflecting one spell was all it took for the second spell to get past the shield. It hit a plate of armor on the side of the alien and the armor shattered.

"Nice shot, Boney!" said Nathan.

"PK Burst Alpha!" commanded Lucas.

A small ball of whitish light flew from the blade of the golden sword and through where the shield had been.

"The shield! It's gone!" exclaimed Ness.

"I figured that if one armor piece is gone, it might create a rip in the shield!" replied Lucas.

The ball of light hit the Escaryuba and there was a minor burst of energy. The large alien roared.

The world faded.

* * *

The vision certainly had been long, and it had featured them.

But what was that under Ness's nose?

His nose was bleeding...but that vision had showed them how to defeat a powerful enemy, how could it be false?

"Ness! Are you okay?" asked Jeff.

"Urgh...false vision," he explained. "But I'm fine. The vision showed us defeating a giant Escaryuba. It was wearing armor. And...I guess it had little shield generators in the armor."

"I thought so!" exclaimed Nathan.

"What?" said Jeff, Duster, Kumatora, Paula, Ness, Poo, King, Lucas, and Boney.

"The Escaryuba are developing shields," he replied. "Shields that block PSI and magic and armor that blocks physical attacks. I overheard Gygath the night they met in Twoson-the same day (day defined as a 24-hour period of time) you guys defeated a horde of Escaryuba with nothing more than a few lasers and glaives. That defeat is why the Escaryuba are developing better technology-and I think they're using Tanetane to do it because nobody ever goes here and it's not in the same era as you guys, so you couldn't find them anyway. But I found them and called you guys here-they won't be expecting that.

"But another thing...the Escaryuba have developed a false vision machine."

There was a noise like a fighter jet flying overhead, then:

CRASH!

A huge wyvern landed next to them.

"Hello, Arcturus," said Nathan without even looking.

("Hello,") replied Arcturus.

"As I was saying, I have reason to believe some Escaryuba are on our side."

There was silence.

"They were not convinced by Gygath that the people of Eagleland were planning to destroy them. They knew it was, to use a common phrase, a load of baloney. So they're using stuff the Escaryuba developed for warfare-psychological warfare as well, because, if you remember, they tried it on Ness just as he was having a real vision. Unfortunately, the timing was very bad and the visions were not separated by a brief period of consciousness, showing that the second vision was not real. This time, they timed it well, but since they were on our side the vision was helpful even though it was false.

"They've been watching us. That's how they know that Ness has these visions."

"How are they pulling that off?" asked Jeff. He took out the radar device and pressed the button. "Maybe we can tell if..."

His sentence was cut off, and the reason was known to all.

The screen began to flicker, then it let out a wail and suddenly a ghastly image appeared that was so horrifying even Nathan let out a yelp of fear and Ness grabbed Paula's hand and Lucas's arm (Lucas, if you remember, is one of Ness's descendants). I cannot even begin to describe it; all I can say is that it was the face of a screaming, rotted, corpse-like figure.

"You will all die!" it rasped.

The machine began to shake and rattle, softly at first, then it shook so violently Jeff dropped it and it exploded in fire before it hit the ground.

There was silence for a minute.

Nathan's voice was shaky when he finally broke the silence.

"I-I-I think t-that was o-one of th-the th-things on the i-island," he stammered. "A v-victim of the E-Escaryuba. O-one of them, who th-thinks that w-we are s-slaves of the Escaryuba. I-it wants revenge. W-we should really l-look out for ourselves. It could appear at a-any t-time and try to k-kill."

These words had a far greater effect on them when they were scared. Unintentionally, Duster grabbed Kumatora's hand.

"You see," said Nathan, regaining his old self, "the Escaryuba do that sort of thing to people. He wasn't rotted-no, quite the opposite. I believe we are near a massacre zone. Tourists to the island-almost stripped of flesh by the feral versions of the Escaryuba. They can turn feral when put into the wild and oxygen for an extended period of time."

He finished this remark by almost casually pointing Navenstrae over his shoulder and hitting one such Escaryuba with a well-aimed bolt of energy. It squealed and fell to the ground.

"How they were buried, nobody knows. Unless they weren't buried. Arborlevus!"

The final word was clearly a spell. A bush behind him was torn out of the ground by its roots and thrown high into the air. Something fell from it, and Jeff nearly screamed like a little girl as it narrowly missed him.

Poo stared solemnly and intently at the terrible thing-a mirror image of the face on the now-decimated radar.

"It is as I feared. We are all alone on this mission. Paula-I am afraid even praying will not be able to help you now."

"We're not alone," said Ness, standing up. "We've got Nathan and Arcturus, and Boney's learning magic. There's me, Lucas, Paula, Jeff, you"-he was talking to Poo-"King, Duster, Kumatora, and those swords."

Only Lucas understood what Ness meant. For the swords indeed seemed almost like being around a real person-they had an energy of their own.

The rest of them were confused, but did not ask, fearing another long-and possibly frightening-explanation from Nathan.

"Come on," said Lucas unexpectedly-he did not normally play the leader. "We should go. We've got a job to do-stop any more of these people from being murdered for no reason-innocent civilians, killed for a bunch of stupid fruits to go prancing around on an island in secret like a bunch of great prats!"

This shocked them into moving. Lucas was usually nice. In this time of need, he had changed into a true leader. Later, Ness laughed and agreed with his description of the Escaryuba and what they were doing.

* * *

The journey was painful. Very painful.

A thornbush tried to attack them and ended up nearly impaling King. A horde of feral Escaryuba ambushed them and Kumatora's PK Fire attack caused them to fly backwards and ignite part of the jungle. Finally they came to a wall-which had a forcefield around it and the rest of the base. There was also barbed wire all along the wall.

"No problem," said Ness. He spun Hydra through the air and severed the barbed wire. Then he shoved it away with the flat part of the blade.

"Here, I'll do it," said Duster. He jammed Wall Staples into the cement, allowing them to climb the wall.

Once they had climbed it, they found themselves in a bad situation.

"Uh-oh," said Kumatora.

"Uh-oh" didn't even begin to describe the situation.

At least a few hundred armed Escaryuba gazed up at them.

They fired.

Nathan sprung into action, spinning the staff he carried rapidly. The many lasers hit it and simply bounced off, causing the blade of the staff to glow red-hot.

"Auroris Fentrael!"

This was apparently the complex Aurora spell he had mentioned to Boney beforehand.

"Use PK Starstorm!" he hissed at Kumatora and Poo. "Auroris Fentrael has a connection with those-Auroras, meteors-go on, use it!"

"PK Starstorm!" bellowed Kumatora and Poo.

Nathan swiftly drew a series of runes in the air. They swirled around him, faster and faster-then he stomped one foot on the ground. The circle of runes broke and the individual letters flew away into the sky. Moments later, just as Kumatora and Poo managed to unleash PK Starstorm Omega, colored lights rained down and exploded alongside the meteors. Other sections of light broke away and swirled like airborne snakes slithering through the air. There was soon a raging hurricane (complete with lightning) made from the lights, then-

BOOM!

The entire mess exploded violently, even the meteors. The bewildered Escaryuba were thrown sky-high, some landing on roofs, some landing on the ground, and another landing on a walker-type machine. It scrambled into the machine and immediately missiles were flying towards them.

"PK Counter!" shouted Lucas.

The missiles bounced off the counter, which shattered at the last missile's impact. They flew in various directions and blasted apart chunks of cement. The material whistled past their ears and immediately Poo deflected the next barrage of missiles with his hands-in an incredible display of, so to speak, epic-ness worthy of Nathan, he caught the missiles out of the air and whisked them quickly back at the Escaryuba that had fired them. The mecha-walker the alien was controlling sprung high into the air with rocket boosters on the bottom of the metal feet, then the legs and feet tucked in and extended and contracted to form something like a helicopter tail. The body of the mecha angled a little more upwards, then shifted in different directions.

"It's a helicopter," breathed Kumatora. "I wonder what sort of technology these things have?"

"Isn't that what Jeff normally says?" asked Paula.

"I've already got that sort of thing. I just need to refine it and update the prototype," said Jeff.

"Am I allowed to be interested in something?" snapped Kumatora. Lucas glared, and she faltered under his gaze. Lucas looked puny and weak at first glance, but once you got to know him you realized that he would blow you away in a fight.

Paula apologized to Kumatora.

"We oughta get moving," said Nathan. "There isn't much time left to stop them fully. Rycoulth himself-or Gygath-might be here."

Just then, a blast of dark energy threw him into the air and several feet away.

"Welcome. Welcome Welcome Welcome Welcome. Welcome."

Ness realized it first.

Clones. Lots of clones of Rycoulth. All with immense magical power.

"You're going to die. Isn't that nice?" taunted one, with a creepy little giggle.

"Are you scaaarreeed?" teased another.

"'Mommyyyy!' 'Cause that's what Ness always does! Wails for his momma!"

Ness responded to this comment by almost skewering the clone, but Nathan stopped him.

"Trust me. You wouldn't want to do that yet," he whispered.

"I dunno how anyone like Ness could have got a girlfriend."

"He's an idiot. I guess only bigger idiots are attracted to people like him."

"He looks like a donkey's..."

"He sounds like a choking cat."

Ness's anger was building up inside of him. He was beginning to feel like he might explode.

"It would be hilarious if he was dead."

"Grrrrr...grrrrrRRRRRAAAAAAH!" he roared, anger taking hold. "PK ROCKIN' Ç!"

The light slashed and crisscrossed around him as he strummed a guitar made of red light. There was a minor explosion, then there were some more explosions, and then a series of them-like napalm. Light then homed in on each clone, and there was an explosion on impact with each clone. Then the vortex appeared, sucked in the energy and light (and the dark magic fired at Ness), and burst again, releasing the energy and magic and light forcefully into the air and injuring the clones greatly.

The twist came at the end.

The energy released by the vortex gathered around Ness. He levitated into the center of the battlefield as the clones gathered around him in a circle.

The energy and light and magic began to swirl around him, and he was soon enveloped by a whirling storm of power. Waves of shimmering PSI erupted from the storm and his body, causing buildings to crumble and vehicles to implode. The clones backed away from the sheer power and light-

BOOM!

A bigger explosion than Auroris Fentrael rocked the island and caused the clones to glow with a whitish light and burst apart in a clash of light and shadow.

And then, as soon as it had began, it was over. Ness collapsed in the middle of where the storm had been and he lay there, panting, for several minutes.

"That was, as you probably know, PK Rockin' Ç," said Nathan, smiling.

* * *

The PSI had done lots of damage to the buildings and equipment in the space between the forcefields. There was the one they had bypassed altogether by climbing the barbed-wire wall, and they were between that and a secondary forcefield, set up in order to stop those who had passed the first one from teleporting directly into the base. It was well set-up, but it blocked the majority of Ness's PSI from reaching it. Unfortunately, that had caused a fair bit of damage because all of the energy was crammed into the relatively small space between the forcefields. The defenses were already beginning to crumble, and that encouraged everyone.

"So what's going on now?" asked Jeff. "Are we attacking?"

"Yeah," said Nathan. "We've just gotta avoid being detected. It's getting dark-our chances'll be better then."

They sneaked into a small garage-type building full of odd machines and waited for several hours.

Finally, moonlight began to filter through the tiny crack they left at the bottom of the garage door.

"Alright," said Nathan. "I think they know by now someone's infiltrated their base. But we've got darkness as a cover. Come on, let's get moving before they decide to search this place."

He started towards the garage door, but Poo opened another door to the side. It led into a passageway with doors on each side.

"Perhaps it would be wiser to follow this path," he said. "We have a higher chance of being captured on the outside. This appears to be only an office."

"Revaelus Vidar!" commanded Nathan.

Everyone but Nathan felt as if someone was blasting air on them, but it appeared to mean something to him so he nodded.

"Coast is clear," he said, walking over to the doorway. Poo walked through it, but everyone else hesitated.

"For what reason do you hesitate?" asked Poo. They followed, still rather unsure.

The offices were surprisingly empty. They didn't know why.

"I bet they're all surrounding that armored Escaryuba," muttered Ness, to nobody in particular.

"I think you're right," said Lucas. "Do you see that?"

A bizarre light was coming from the end of the hall, where there was a door with a window on it. Noises like someone hitting a chalkboard with a frying pan were reverbrating off of the walls beyond the door.

Ness reached towards the doorknob and gently pulled the door open, but it swung backwards as if hit by an explosion and hit Ness in the nose. There was an audible crack; his nose had broken. Blood spurted onto the floor and he swore quietly.

"Here," said Nathan. He muttered something, and Ness felt his nose repair itself. He didn't pay much attention to the blood until a small brown creature flew at his face, attracted by the scent. Instinctively, he punched it. It tumbled backwards through the air and fell into a crowd of yellow banana-like creatures-the Escaryuba. They were so absorbed in listening to a general-or so Ness assumed it was-they didn't even notice the feral Escaryuba.

A large beastly-looking Escaryuba with a pair of canine teeth poking out at each end of the mouth was wearing armor and giving a speech in a language they had only heard once, in Twoson.

"Coros? OCH!"

It spotted Ness as he slowly backed away. Its mouth half-open, it turned the next word into a roar.

The rest of the crowd turned to face them.

"We've got a situation," said Paula.

The group backed up a pace, but it was no use. Red-hot lasers shot towards them and sizzed as they richocheted off of walls. Ness and Lucas got the same idea and unsheathed both swords, managing to deflect a few lasers with the flats of them.

"PK Fire!" shouted Paula.

Flames surged through the air and along the ground like a tidal wave, swamping the Escaryuba. But the shield technology was working well. Quite a few of them hopped neatly backwards into the shield generated by the armor of the giant Escaryuba. The fire was thrown back at them and Kumatora blasted it with PK Freeze. The freezing air neutralized the fire and a barrage of lasers were fired by the Escaryuba. However...

("The lasers! The shield is working against itself!") exclaimed Boney.

("They're being fried!") yelped King.

The lasers were bouncing around inside of the shield and, according to King, frying the Escaryuba. Banana-like aliens were crumpling to the ground and the lasers reflected off of the shiny armor. Soon, the beastly Escaryuba was surrounded by a ring of what appeared to be fried bananas.

"NOOOOOO!" it bellowed. Then it charged.

Ness, Lucas, and Nathan leapt at it simultaneously and lunged with the blades of each weapon. The shield flickered, but nothing happened. Then it hit Ness.

"Of course!" he shouted, hitting himself in the head with his palm. "Lucas! Nathan! Hit the shield again!"

They slashed the shield once more, and in that instant Ness tried PK Burst Alpha, willing himself to use it, to send that tiny ball of whitish energy flying through the temporary rip in the shield...

BOOM!

He had closed his eyes, but hit his target. One piece of armor fell off of the great beast and Lucas sprang through the hole in the shield. He drove the golden sword into the place where the armor had fallen off and muttered something. Immediately, the Escaryuba shook him off, but then convulsed, electricity crackling around its body. Then it crumpled to the ground. Lucas ripped the armor off and threw it off to the sides. It was dead.

"Whoa," said Ness. "What did you do? Can you use magic now?"

"It was just PK Crescent," he said. "Nothing much."

They walked towards another door and opened it, Ness trodding delibrately on the dead alien. There was a short hallway there, leading through a mass of metal and cement. Normally, it would be heavily guarded, but at the moment the area was almost devoid of life.

"So what now?" he asked.

"Well," said Nathan, "I would assume that we're pretty far in."

"Why?" asked Ness as they opened the door at the end of the short corridor.

"Because this is where they're genetically modifying chimeras and empowering them with weapons," said Nathan.

They were indeed in a very important-looking room. A Kangashark lay unconscious on a table, but its feet were now metal and so was its tail. The hammerhead shark head had lasers mounted over both eyes and the tail appeared to have some sort of cannon or launcher in it. They were surprised when they saw the gash in its stomach. A small, mostly mechanical joey was laying next to it.

"I assume they left some organic material on the joey so that it would grow," observed Jeff., grimacing.

"Sickening," said Paula.

"They're artificially impregnating Kangasharks with modified joeys," said Lucas. "See the gash? You can tell it was made by a scalpel-very neat and clean."

"Ợrgịễnẻ Cdễrừỡ!" shouted Nathan suddenly. It was a language unlike anything they had ever heard before, but as they watched in horror, the joey seemed to melt into an organic form and so did the Kangashark. When Nathan turned around, his eyes were glowing faintly yellow.

"A much more powerful magic than normal," he explained. "Romperis and the like, spoken with only English characters-not as powerful as an older magic. Older magic has more Latin characters-Rycoulth uses this more frequently than I do, because there's a lot of dark magic that's included in older magic."

Paula had often heard those stories from the weird shamans that lived further downtown. They mentioned a lot of "elder magic" and had symbols like eyes in triangles and 20-pointed stars and some of them (the more evil-looking ones) had demonic-looking symbols. She often stayed away from these shamans and their strange black huts, but some of the other ones weren't as bad. They said that the elder magic was deep and powerful, but hard to use and harder to understand. They explained that there was lots of dark magic involved with it, but there were other non-dark spells. Nathan must be pretty powerful and skillful, not to mention good at understanding complicated stuff.

Lucas thought about Porky and this "Giegue" he thought Porky had mentioned. In truth Porky was really Pokey Minch, Ness's former best friend and later nemesis. Ness thought about Giygas's vague, unrecognizable form and how awful and dark it was.

"...and as I was saying, it's not really a time to demonstrate and explain this magic," said Nathan, drawing them from their thoughts.

"Come on, then," snapped Kumatora. "We can't stand here all night talking about stuff."

They half-sprinted towards the door and opened it.

Before them was a huge, crackling forcefield. They could tell it wasn't going to stop them from moving, but something was going to happen.

Nathan frowned and lightly touched it with the tip of his finger. Immediately, he shook violently, his eyes went wide, and he collapsed.

"Nathan!" exclaimed Paula.

"My God!" shouted Duster out loud. They knelt down to the ground, but Nathan sat up, repeatedly declining their efforts to help. He healed himself and took a close look at the forcefield.

"I don't know," he said. "I really don't."

A small machine was bolted to the concrete next to one of the long metal generators, like a great metal spider leg. Ness had the feeling that it was a switch or terminal to shut off the forcefield, but unfortunately the forcefield that it controlled was guarding it.

"Someone's coming!" hissed Lucas, and there were indeed slapping noises on the floor. An Escaryuba was certainly coming. They dove to the side and watched it. Although it was only about six inches larger than the average Escaryuba, it was apparently high-ranking. It strode over to the left wall leading back into the building, the metal reflecting the sky, which had traces of pink. Then it pushed a small panel on the wall and the panel next to it moved outwards then slid to the left.

"What's it doing?" asked Kumatora. The alien pressed the uncovered wall. They could hear beeping.

"It's a keypad," whispered Jeff.

The banana-like creature had apparently entered the right code, since a section of wall larger than Duster slid upwards out of the way. The Escaryuba removed a small orange suit. Nathan, on Ness's left, pointed a finger at the Escaryuba as it finished putting the suit on. He mumbled something.

Immediately, the alien stood straight up and walked over to them. It had been hypnotized.

"Wait a moment," said Nathan. He muttered something else and walked out of the shadows, and the Escaryuba sank into a bow as he approached it.

"Sir Nathan," it said.

"Sir?" whispered Paula.

"I dunno," said Ness. They drew close together as a terrible screeching noise split the air behind them, but it was only a bird.

Nathan turned around, smiling. Then he held up his non-mechanical hand and showed them the back.

A strange cross-like symbol with a dragon in the middle of it was tatooed there. They were surprised that they had never noticed it before, and asked him what it meant.

"I'm part of the Order of The Dragon," he said. "But now's not the time for that. Let's just say we're the good guys."

The Escaryuba showed them a very small version of the tatoo Nathan had, on the underside of its foot.

"We need to get inside," said Nathan. "Can you show us how?"

It walked to the forcefield and went right through it-the suit seemed to give immunity to it. Then it moved to the small machine Ness had previously noticed and inserted a small red card which it had taken from a suit pocket. The forcefield faded out of sight.

"Convenient," muttered Kumatora. "But good."

They walked to the large iron security doors as a large thing with batlike wings swooped down. Arcturus was back.

"Where do you keep going?" asked Nathan.

("Arcturus got a girlfriend! Arcturus got a-!") taunted Boney.

("Shut up, mutt!") said Arcturus, his scales attaining a reddish tinge. Boney continued to grin as best he could; dogs do not have the same facial muscles as humans and it is hard for them to nonverbally express happiness besides wagging their tails.

"That means another member of the Order is here," mused Nathan quietly. "I wonder who? They must have a female wyvern...bet it's a girl."

BANG!

The security doors burst open with a deafening bang and a pale form was thrown back.

"I do not make deals," rasped a female voice.

Nathan frowned, Arcturus scowled darkly, and Boney and King growled viciously. Ness and Lucas were of one mind once more, and took out their swords. They did not know it, but the swords were sister blades and formed a deep bond between their owners. Nobody realized that they got along very well (even though they were related) despite having just recently met (recently meaning less than three months).

Gygath rose, sputtering and angry.

"My foolish brother! He loved her so very much, so very like a mother-and he chose to artificially give her powers so she would live forever with him! What a fool Giegue was!"

Then he noticed Nathan and the rest of them (Nathan especially; he had not forgotten what the green-haired teen had done to Rycoulth back in Twoson).

"Curses!" he spat. "May all your bones turn to dust! But I've got something more important to attend to than them..."

He floated back into the room.

"What in the world could be more important than us?" asked Duster. He wasn't bragging-they were a formidable fighting force, with alliteration in their description to boot. Ness looked especially intimidating as he grasped Hydra, which seemed to be shining with its own light.

"But Maria-" hissed an all-too-familiar voice in a flattering tone. Rycoulth was trying to gain someone's favor.

"SILENCE! I shall not be persuaded to make this deal! Your petty Earth does not matter to me. I have far more important matters to attend to-like that pesky Nathan-"

BOOM!

There was an enormous explosion and Ness's hat was blasted off his head-Jeff's glasses shattered-Paula screamed-

"Don't EVER call me pesky!" roared Nathan. "You of all people-"

He was too angry to speak, but his actions had demonstrated his fury. The entire area was scorched black and two forms lay unconscious on the ground. Another was on their hands and knees.

Jeff felt on the ground for the frames of his glasses before taking out some spare lenses and a tiny screwdriver. He repaired the glasses and put them back on his face. Paula's usually nice hair was looking very windswept, and Ness was fuming over the loss of his favorite hat. Kumatora and Duster had not even bothered to get up again, and Lucas hadn't moved at all, he was just standing there, his face ashen.

"What's the deal?" asked Ness.

"Maria," spat Nathan.

"Ma-who?" said Paula.

"Maria-your father's great grandmother, Ness," said Nathan, who was calming down again. "She's a terrible person. Her and her husband George, who was a good man, discovered PSI through these aliens. Gygath's race had learned PSI already, and they studied it carefully. Now, they were not always evil. Giegue, or Giygas to you guys, is the one who rallied them and tried to destroy Earth. Anyway, George managed to get back home safely and continued to raise his family, but he taught them PSI. It's been passed down through the generations. Paula, I believe George taught PSI to his closest friends as well-the Polestars learned PSI. As for Poo, PSI has always been in the royalty of Dalaam, it's just that nobody ever knew what Dalaam was or bothered to go there."

Poo, who was silent most of the time, nodded.

"It is true," he confirmed.

"But Maria here stayed with the aliens, raising Giegue like a mother. Gygath had been separated from his brother early on, and only discovered he was the brother of Giegue after Giegue's defeat. Maria had been artificially empowered with PSI and machines to have long life and be very powerful, but she took it very far and used her powers-which, in my opinion, she doesn't deserve-to easily learn dark magic. She was shown how 'horrible' Earth was and vowed to destroy it, but now she considers herself above such 'petty' matters."

"How DARE you..." rasped the figure kneeling on the ground.

("Shut it,") snarled Arcturus.

"Ness...please...my great-grandson...hero...savior...won't you save your great-grandmother?"

"You're not my great-grandmother," said Ness coldly. "At least not any more."

They stared in shock-Ness, reject his own family?

But all the same, it was a very bad situation. They agreed with Ness.

* * *

The base had powered down. It had the appearance of having been bombed several times over, and when the forcefields were down Ness unleashed PK Rockin' on it. It was the newer version, the one he had used on the clones, and the crippling shockwaves caused the buildings to collapse inwardly. The Escaryuba in the Order of The Dragon had come with them, and they sailed through the air on Arcturus (except Nathan, who apparently had rocket shoes).

Eventually they landed at the shore. The forcefield was still up around the island, and it was time to journey back across the seafloor.

"Not yet."

A dark shape stepped out of the shadows, followed by another.

Rycoulth and Gygath had returned.

"Out of the way," snarled Ness, raising the sword.

The two stayed put. He drove the blade downwards at Rycoulth and there was a clinking noise as Rycoulth blocked it with his claws. He suddenly drew back, claws crackling, staring fearfully at Hydra.

That was when it happened.

Both swords glowed, and the golden blade flew out of Lucas's pack. They flew into the air and formed an X before dissipating into silver and gold energy. This energy swirled around an invisible point in the air, then flew upwards into the overcast sky. As it began to rain, the droplets turned into blades made of energy that pierced and stabbed at Rycoulth and Gygath. Soon it was raining paper-thin blades of energy, and then lightning, and the energy swirled and sent out shockwaves. It curled around the two evil entities, swirling, striking them with lightning and swords-

The energy re-formed into Hydra and the golden sword, which thrust themselves into Ness and Lucas's hands. They emitted beams of energy, which hit Rycoulth and Gygath before turning into chains of explosions like napalm. Gygath and Rycoulth shrieked in terror and pain and fled.

They journeyed back across the seafloor, dodging oxygen machines. When they reached the end of the forcefield around Tanetane, Arcturus allowed them to climb onto his back and they shot from the surface into the stormy sky. They thought they saw something leathery slip out of Nathan's shirt, but he paid no heed to their stares as he guided the wyvern across the sky.

It was over...for now.

* * *

Maria's turned bad, the blades are superpowered, Nathan's a member of the Order of The Dragon, Ness lost his hat (I think he got it back, though), Kumatora avoided suffocation on the return trip, and there are rogue Escaryuba on the group's side!

What will happen next!

PLEASE REVIEW! If you like this story or hate it, please review!

It was really sudden with the whole Maria thing, but it comes in later (and in the sequel, which WILL BE AWESOME!).

Click teh button! Yeah, the blue one.


	16. Storm Over Nowhere

Chapter 16: Storm Over Nowhere

A storm! Whoa!

Another dumb clone of Lucas: I WANNA GO PLAY IN THE LIGHTNING!

I wish this recurring gag would go away. Anyway, not too much to say here. It's really just a storm...or is it?

Jeff felt his legs slipping off of the wet scales.

He felt it before he died.

But not really.

He fell off of Arcturus' back and towards the wet, cold sea.

Ness managed to hook the back of Jeff's shirt on his shoe. Paula reached down carefully, so she wouldn't slip off either, and hoisted Jeff up.

"We're veering sharp right!" shouted Nathan.

"Why?" asked Duster.

"There's something on the beach that shouldn't be there at all! We'd be better off going straight to Lucas's or Duster's house-I daresay you'd want to go to Osohe, Kumatora?"

Kumatora shook her head.

"Alright! Veering right in 3...2...1..."

Jeff felt a sinking feeling as they twisted almost sideways and were nearly thrown off. Paula, who was sitting behind Ness, held onto him tightly, and Ness was worried about falling. Duster wasn't too worried-he could see the ground, and his bad leg could absorb most of the shock anyway. Kumatora never worried much about anything, and Lucas was terrified.

"Going down!"

Arcturus dove sharply and caused them all to crash into the person in front before sliding backwards from the sheer speed of the dive. Then he pulled slowly into a landing position and extended his feet to the ground, gently stopping. They climbed off his back, and he followed them to the house. Boney ran straight for his doghouse, and King followed, because the doghouse was enormous and built into the house. There was room enough for three or four dogs.

Arcturus yawned widely (his breath, despite his diet consisting mostly of meat, did not smell bad) and climbed over the sheep-pen wall. He laid down in the back of it, next to the wall, facing outwards. The bewildered sheep decided to ignore it, because things like that happened frequently.

Lucas was forced to kick the door open, but he re-locked it so that Flint wouldn't suspect anybody being in his house.

In the past year, Flint had extended his house to have two levels. (He and his friends from the village had done so themselves.) Now Lucas had a room to himself, and there was a spare room full of old junk. Flint had a room to himself as well. But there were places to sleep in the spare room, and they went there. It was very late.

"Mmf."

Ness opened his eyes blearily. Any minute now he would hear his mother's voice calling him down to breakfast...well, he thought that, until he heard Paula. Then it all came rushing back to him.

"Good morning, Ness," said Paula, smiling. They had all fallen asleep in a clump, since everybody had collapsed onto the floor the moment the door had been opened. Lucas's hair was strewn all over the place, and he looked quite silly, having fallen face-first onto the floor.

The two sat up and looked around.

"What time is it?" asked Ness.

Paula grimaced. "Ten-thirty. It's so stormy out there it's still mostly dark."

Hand in hand, they went to the window to look at what might be happening.

A dark storm was swirling around in the sky. Rain spattered against the window, and wind blew the huge droplets everywhere. Lightning cracked and flashed in the distance. A particularily loud BOOM! made them jump.

"'S there a cannon?" asked Duster sleepily.

"No, you moron, go back to sleep, it's really early," said Kumatora drowsily.

"It's ten-thirty A.M.," Ness informed them.

"Whaaaat!" They both sat up and looked around at Ness and Paula.

"It's storming," said Paula.

"Ack, I'm sweating to death!" said Kumatora, changing the topic as she suddenly realized how hot they all were. Ness's shirt was plastered to his back and so was Duster's.

"That reminds me, we should change," said Duster. "We've been wearing these clothes for a while."

They showered (and Duster had to shave, seeing as his mustache was getting too bushy and he didn't really want a beard) and changed their clothes (Flint welcomed them and allowed them to use his shower). Then they met in the junk-room again. Nathan was holding a canister of oil and using the long, thin tip to apply oil to the joints of his mechanical arm.

"It's made of metal. It gets creaky if I don't oil it after a shower. Plus, my nerves are hooked up to this thing-I really don't want it to rust and let me get tetanus. Not that it matters, but I'd prefer not to waste my energy on a simple heal," he explained, flexing the arm. Then he slumped onto the floor and, surprisingly, went back to sleep. He rolled under a table, then started snoring. He could be ridiculous sometimes.

BOOM!

Ness hugged Paula as they looked out the window; lightning had struck next to the house...again.

"Yikes," said Duster.

Suddenly there came a knock at the front door. They could hear it from where they were, above the porch.

"Open up!" came a muffled voice. "We're the Rays!"

Flint, downstairs, hurriedly opened the door. A gang of thugs looking nothing like anyone in these parts walked into the door and shoved Flint aside.

Flint, who was no softie, stood back up and glared at them. But he wasn't dumb, either. There were too many to handle.

Upstairs, Ness heard the word "Rays" and his jaw dropped. So did Paula's.

"What?" whispered Jeff, seeing this.

"The Rays are the street gang that harassed us when we were trying to get you to the hospital," explained Paula quickly.

"Dem Escaryuba things said they had a gate-thing where we could get some revenge on those twerps that attacked us when we asked for some dough."

The voice from downstairs made Jeff and Paula's eyes go wide, but Ness snorted. "Demanded money, rather," he muttered furiously.

Footsteps were heard stomping up the stairs. Then there was a bang as a door fell off its hinges, then another. Finally, their door fell down, narrowly missing King. He whipped around, barking, until a Ray kicked him, hard. There was a blinding flash of silver light as King flew through the air, then changed course midair and rocketed at the Ray who had kicked him. They caught a brief glimpse of something light silver lightning, then a crash and King was standing on the ground. He was glowing, and the Ray was unconscious. The rest retaliated by drawing weapons.

These were not limited to maces, knives, pistols, and clubs. There were others, but they were of a particularly nasty variety which I prefer not to say, and some don't exist in our world.

"Time for some payback," said a brutish-looking one. His head was shaved, and he brandished a mace. Immediately, there were two Rays to each person, and one to each dog. But Boney launched a large fireball at the gang member holding him, and King used leverage (it was a mystery how he knew how to use it) to flip the one holding him. Then there was a silver flash, and the two were unconscious. This made the ones holding Paula bring a knife to her throat.

"You might want to cooperate," said one. "Or she'll be first."

Ness scowled and muttered a string of swears, King growled, and Boney caused fire to spout from the floor, but they eventually went with it.

"And now," said the tall one in the doorway, "let the executions begin."

Duster was first. They hit him over the head with a club and he crumpled to the ground. They kicked him aside. Next came Kumatora. They held a gun up-

BLAM!

She was kicked aside too, with no blood whatsoever.

Then-

"Gravitus Desce!"

CRASH!

A heap of old furniture came crashing down on top of several gang members. Paula elbowed the guys holding her between the legs in the confusion, and then hit the ones holding Ness over the head with a frying pan. Ness took out his bat-using Hydra would cause body parts to fly across the room-and cracked some over the head. One with a mace swung for Jeff's head, and blood spurted across the room.

"JEFF!" screamed Paula.

"YOU-DON'T-DO-THAT!" roared Ness. He hit one guy so hard he heard something snap-he didn't care-he wanted to reach the murderer-kill them-

"No."

Nathan grabbed the back of his shirt.

"You never kill people. Hit them in the head-whatever. As long as they don't die."

Ness went limp and collapsed on the ground. Lucas had taken a last resort and bitten one guy's arm, since he was still being held captive. He punched the other one in the nose with his now free left hand, and then used his elbow like a club to push his way through to Duster and Kumatora. Suddenly a metal plate hit one guy in the side and Duster appeared behind it. The metal plate was the sole of his boot. Kumatora had her fighting gloves on and was simply punching people. Before Lucas could ask what happened, he felt a pain in his arm. He had been stabbed in the arm.

Nathan, in the center of the fight, was whirling like a hurricane. For some reason he didn't seem to be touching people, but they still fell.

Boney and King were fighting back-to-back. Boney used Molevihombrus to clunk gang members on the head, while King was enveloped by a silver forcefield and was surging forwards with a flash for an attack. The energy released did damage.

It was awful chaos, and Nathan threw a ball of unconscious Rays out of the window when it was finished. There was a dull thud as their magical levitation wore off and they hit the ground.

"How did you survive?" asked Lucas, tending to his wounded arm.

"They only knocked me out," said Duster. "I guess the guy had a huge opinion of his own strength and thought he could kill me with one blow."

"I used PSI Heal and Lifeup to help Duster," said Kumatora. "But when they fired at me, I ducked just a bit-the guy's grip was loose enough for it, and the bullet went through my hair. Then I just played dead." She and Duster were keeping close to one another. A smile played around the corners of Nathan's mouth, but it soon stopped and he nodded.

"What about Jeff?" asked Paula fearfully.

Jeff was not quite dead. But he was seriously injured.

"I don't know," said Nathan gravely. He hung his head, but despite his sadness-he had, after all, grown to like them all quite much-he didn't cry. He never cried, although sometimes that can be very bad for a person. He often thought that he didn't have tear ducts or tear glands. His mother had once said to him that he didn't cry even when he was a baby. (Nathan's only fifteen, if you remember...)

Ness fell to his knees. "Come on, Jeff," he said. "Wake up."

Jeff did not stir. A tearful Paula knelt down beside Ness and hugged him.

"Come on!" shouted Ness, as if he could wake Jeff. "Come-on!"

He picked Jeff up in his arms and shook him. "Wake up!"

He finally realized it was hopeless. He sank to the ground, hugging Jeff, whispering one word over and over again: "No."

Ness and Paula were both crying on the ground over Jeff. Poo knelt down and a single tear fell from his eye. He did not speak, but bowed his head.

"Can't you do something?" asked Ness. He looked so miserable that Nathan was driven to the verge of breaking down completely, unleashing all the stress he never showed, at least not around others.

"The mace," Nathan whispered. "It was coated in that toxin."

Kumatora, Lucas, and Duster's eyes went wide. "Then that means-"

Jeff sat straight up like a zombie and hit Ness in the face. He was sent sprawling across the room. Then he shoved Paula away. She fell next to Ness, who pulled her out of the way of his sudden blow. He had come out of nowhere-one moment he was across the room, now he was next to them. He pulled her up off of the ground and Paula yanked Ness away from the second strike. Suddenly, a glaive went flying across the room and hit Jeff's glasses. They fell off and broke, but that didn't deter him.

He staggered zombielike towards them, and they darted away from the corner of the room. Ness kicked his bizarre friend in the back and shoved him onto the floor.

Zombie-Jeff had no real thoughts. The toxin had addled his mind and body, and all he could think of was hurting Ness-physically and mentally. So he did the only thing he could think of. When Paula pinned one side of him to the ground and Ness pinned the other, he reached up and grabbed Paula's dress. Ness realized what he was about to do before he did it, and decided to act rashly and flipped Zombie-Jeff onto his back. Then he picked him up and spun him like a top on the end of his bat.

Just when Zombie-Jeff was about to fly off the end of the bat, a large wyvern that had a bow on the side of its head-definitely not Arcturus, and this one was green instead of blue- smashed through the window, seized Jeff, and pulled him through the window. Then a blue wyvern shot through the same hole, expanding it because he was even larger than the other wyvern, and said something in a harsh tongue to Nathan. Nathan responded in the same language, and he climbed onto Arcturus's back and flew off into the darkening storm, leaving Ness and Paula in the corner looking confused and scared, while Boney and King stood in the middle of the room and growled at anything suspicious.

Duster walked across the room and gazed out of the hole the two dragons had made.

"Nothing," he said.

"We'll see about that," growled Kumatora. She ran to the hole and jumped out of it, and they heard a dull thud. Duster followed with a clang, and Lucas and Boney went last. The Eaglelanders were more reluctant to follow, but did so anyway.

Out in the storm, it seemed much more ferocious. The driving rain stung their skin, and Boney was twice forced to use a summoning spell he had learned to block a powerful wind with a large, unmovable object. Duster led the way, holding a flashlight Lucas had lent him.

The light hit a number of shining objects-scales! They ran forwards to find the same green wyvern with the bow that had taken Jeff. In front of it was a girl with bright pink hair, brighter than Kumatora's hair.

"Not afraid to tell them, are you, Nathan?" she teased. She was dressed like Nathan, although she lacked Navenstrae, but there was a sheath on her belt. Her arm wasn't mechanical-she hadn't met whoever Nathan had.

"Of course not-" came Nathan's voice, but the mysterious girl cut him off. Two leathery wings unfolded from her back.

"I'm not afraid. Why are you, bro?"

Nathan had a sister?

Nathan shook his head. "I think it would be best-"

"Don't play the wise man. Look, they're behind us. They may well already know."

Nathan seemed stunned that they had appeared there.

"I suppose you heard her?" he asked, pointing to his sister.

"I dunno what she's talking about," said Duster, his brow furrowing thoughtfully.

Two leathery wings unfolded from Nathan's back.

"Why do you think I'm so good with dragons?" he asked. "That language, the one that I talked to Arcturus in so you wouldn't understand-language of dragons! My father was a shape-shifting dragon-he shape-shifted to a human to marry my mortal human mother. I'm half. She's half. There. The blunt truth."

He seemed really annoyed.

"Why are you annoyed?" asked Ness. "It'd be really awesome." That isn't what he said (he used some slightly stronger language) but it was close, and Nathan hit himself in the head with his palm.

"It's because nobody is supposed to know this, not even you guys. Sis, you're not supposed to go around showing people that you have wings. That's not what we're supposed to do."

"Yeah, but that's not fun."

She reminded Ness of a slightly older Tracy, except that she was now holding an ice dagger-the twin of Nathan's fire dagger, which was tucked away safely out of the rain. He took out Navenstrae and unleashed a blast of green energy into the air, which formed the symbol on the tattoo on the back of his hand.

"You and your order stuff," said his sister.

"Yeah, well, it's what I do, isn't it?" said Nathan with something like a sneer.

Ness was reminded of himself and Tracy very forcibly at this, and stifled a laugh.

"I've only got a dragon because I wanted one. Arcturus was assigned to you. I found Lacey."

The green dragon let out a crooning noise.

"But it was because he chose me. Sure, Lacey chose you, but how likely are you to find a wyvern in the mountains anyway, on the ground?"

Arcturus snorted and stamped his foot, waving his tail. Suddenly, yet another dragon soared into their midst. It was steel-gray and larger than Arcturus and Lacey, but the guy riding it was larger as well. But Nathan seemed to be above him in rank, because he nodded respectfully.

"Sir," he said respectfully.

"Yes," said Nathan. "Can you gather a search party and try and find the Rays? You'll know them when you see them-like a street gang from Eagleland, back in the past. They attacked these guys." He looked at Ness, Lucas, and the rest.

"At once, sir!" said the guy. He climbed onto the back of the steel-gray wyvern and soared off into the storm.

"Not so useless, is it?" asked Nathan. His sister grinned.

"I'd rather be having fun. Molevihombrus!"

Nathan was lifted off his feet and spun through the air.

"Statuion Regreo!" he shouted, and though his sister kept making movements through the air he dropped to the ground.

"What was that all about! You ruined the fun!" complained his sister.

"Natalie! We're in a very dangerous place right now! You understand?" fumed Nathan.  
"Danger, schmanger. What's so-" began his sister (apparently named Natalie). Kumatora noticed that their names both began with N and performed a feat known in our dimesion (and time) as a facepalm.

CRASH!

"Gwooooooohhh!" roared something in the trees close by. A thick branch went flying towards Poo, and he caught it out of the air and threw it back. Kumatora and Paula used a double PK Freeze to shatter the tree that came in retaliation. They ran into the house and up the stairs, where the wall had been repaired by Nathan or his sister Natalie.

Branches kept flying towards the house and hitting the wall with audible clunks. Arcturus and Lacey were also in the room. It was surprising the floor wasn't crumbling away beneath them under the weight of the dragons.

"What is it?" asked Kumatora.

"Most likely some sort of monster, knowing Rycoulth," said Nathan tonelessly.

"Very likely," agreed Ness, having fought the manticore.

"So what do we do about it?" asked Duster.

("We have two options,") said King. ("We fight-or we run.")

There was a crash as an entire tree collided with the ground outside.

"In this case, it may be wiser to run," said Nathan. "It's dark and stormy out there"-his words were punctuated by a jagged bolt of white lightning that was followed by the roar of thunder-"and whatever this thing is...it's strong."

They charged through the house and tore across the field, dodging branches and trees. The group sprinted into the village and, in an adrenaline-fueled feat, leaped over the well and almost crashed into the archway leading to the crossroads. They ran under the archway and then into the cemetery, because there was an old mine to their right and an even darker and stormier Sunshine Forest to their left-although admittedly, there was a hot spring and sanctuary (not like Ness's Your Sanctuary spots). They kept running and Nathan blew the gates apart with a force that nearly caused them to fly off their hinges. Nathan sliced the head of a zombie off-for the storm and darkness was having a similar effect to night in the cemetery-and Ness and Lucas launched a dual PK Crescent attack to the sides and rear. They ran into the old groundskeeper's shack, bolting the door shut, then down the secret passage into the courtyard of Osohe. The old groundskeeper was still there in the storm, tending to his potatatotoes and carrrots (or at least that's what the signs said).

"Hello," he said over the storm. "Still trying to protect my vegetables! They haven't died yet!"

Nathan blasted a ray of white energy at his vegetable patches and shields formed there.

"There!" he roared. "Come in the castle!"

The groundskeeper seemed to understand and they all raced into the castle.

The entire group of them-including Natalie and Lacey-sat in a small chamber with plenty of windows. Ness gazed out one of them, Paula next to him. It was actually warmer in the castle than outside, but there was nothing nicer than sitting gazing out a window in a large, creepy castle with someone you loved in a smallish room full of your friends and two wyverns. The fact that it was storming and the world outside looked very bleak (what little they could see of it) made the room seem quite cozy.

"I wonder why we all ran to Osohe," said Lucas.

"Nearest place to us," said Kumatora. "What else?"

It was true that Osohe was the nearest safe place to them, but they didn't pay much attention to it. A large form was visible in the distance.

"That's definitely not someone small in front of the window," said Duster. "Whatever it is...it's big. But at least it's far away."

Their chamber-which Kumatora used to use for a place where she could be truly alone, with no ghosts (friendly or hostile) or anything-was quite high up in the castle. The figure looked about 1.2 times as high as the wall surrounding the castle. There was a glint of something metallic on its face, near two red, faintly glowing spots. They just thought it was some sort of monster. But it was certainly coming closer.

"That shape looks familiar," muttered Ness, so that only Paula could hear him.

"It does," said Paula quietly. "But I can't think of...hold on...Jeff! It looks like Jeff!"

Ness gasped.

And as the thing came closer, they realized that it was Jeff.

"I told Lacey to put him in the woods...that he would be safe there..." said Natalie.

"Nothing is ever safe around here! Not anymore!" exclaimed Kumatora.

The first thing that happened was Jeff stepping into the moat-and disappearing. A minute or so later, he climbed back out again, drenched even more than he already was, if that was even possible.

"That toxin," said Nathan quickly. "They must have enhanced it with some sort of rapid-growth fluid."

CLANG!

The two blades had once again flown up into the air on their own. Now they began to rotate around one another-slowly at first, then they sped up. Then they became a blur of silver and gold, and this blur went through the wall. A sphere of energy appeared in the center of the blur, which was extending vertically. It spun faster and faster.

"It's a tornado!" exclaimed Paula.

The tornado whirled ferociously as Jeff struggled to climb over the wall. He finally managed to do so and the tornado settled.

"Great, now we've lost the swords," complained Ness. As Jeff walked towards the castle, though, there was a burst of energy that sent a silver bolt and a golden bolt of energy streaking across the grounds. These collided and burst into the tornado, bigger and more powerful than before. It formed right over Jeff's head and swirled around him. There was a shriek of pain and terror, an unearthly sound.

Nathan seemed to realize something.

"Come on, Arcturus," he muttered, thinking to himself. The blue wyvern lowered his wings and Nathan climbed onto his back. Then he smashed through the wall and shot off into the night, at the tornado.

Arcturus swerved around the twisting vortex and Nathan realized that this manuever had given him a perfect shot.

"Ekspulca!" he said quietly. A ribbon of pale blue energy streaked off towards Jeff, and immediately there was a burst of green. The energy was slowly drained from Jeff into the ribbon, which formed a ball and dissipated, taking the green energy with it. Jeff began to shrink, and Arcturus flew into the center of the tornado, where Nathan somehow snatched the swords out of the rotating blur they had formed. The wyvern swooped down, grabbed Jeff in his claws, and ascended. Within seconds Jeff was lying, gasping for air and terrified, on the floor. The wall was repaired and they all crowded around Jeff, upset.

"What the hell happened!" asked Kumatora.

"It was that mace," gasped Jeff. "It must have done something to me."

"Clearly," growled Ness.

"Mani Mani," snarled Nathan. "You can't kill a demon with just one sword attack in the physical realm-even if it is from Hydra. I think that mace must have triggered some sort of demon-call, or maybe when my sister put you in the wood it possessed you. That's my best guess on this one, it's certainly quite unclear."

Ness took note of the fact that he seemed less certain than before, when he had explained everything like he knew it quite well. Of course, those were past events and he probably had experienced more of that type of thing.

Lucas suddenly sat bolt upright and grabbed the golden sword out of Nathan's hand. He read the inscription off of the hilt, then paused.

"Let me see that," muttered Kumatora. She read over it several times, then looked confused.

"Scylla?"

Nathan's eyes widened.

"Hydra-also called Charybdis-and Scylla were a pair of monsters that lived in a passage in the ocean. The hero Odysseus sailed between them, and had six men eaten by the six-headed Scylla, and then had a bit of an encounter with Charybdis-or Hydra, whatever you prefer. Hydra was what they called it when the made the sword, I'm guessing," he explained.

"You guessed right," hissed a voice from the shadows. "But that's not very important now, is it?"

A bolt of dark energy streaked across the room and hit Nathan in the side of the head. He collapsed to the ground as a wave of offensive PSI shot over his head at the corner where the voice had come from. White hexagons, surging multicolored energy, fire, frozen air, and lightning all merged into one big bolt of energy and blew up in the corner. This was met by a shriek and a hiss, followed by a retaliating blast of dark energy.

Lucas twirled Scylla and slashed at the blast, splitting it into two blobs. These veered far off-course and missed completely, leading to something King would later describe as "utter and epic failure." At the moment, Boney summoned up streaks of flame that formed a ball. The fireball flew forwards, but it was deflected by-

"Not you again!" shouted Ness as he drove Hydra against a deathly scythe Rycoulth was carrying. Lucas took advantage of the temporary distraction to fling Scylla through the air like an axe at an axe-throwing competition. The golden blade shone brightly as the hilt almost struck Rycoulth, but by some miracle the blade was suddenly pointing at Rycoulth, and purple goo shot across the room. Arcturus got a faceful and roared angrily. Sheer physical strength overwhelmed Rycoulth's magical powers and even his own strength. The wyvern seized Rycoulth in his jaws and threw him into the stone, which had strangely vanished. A pair of bat-like wings spread from Rycoulth's back, and he hissed as he made his escape.

"He's getting stronger," groaned Nathan, sitting up. "Those wings aren't too good." He spread his own, which were more dragonish and made of a leathery reddish type of skin.

"How...how did you know what to do? To save me?" asked Jeff.

"The way you were acting," explained Nathan. "I knew that if it was just a huge and brainwashed you, you wouldn't have fallen in the moat. You're smarter than that. The fact that you didn't drown-or show any sign of harm from falling in-was another clue. Even chemically enhanced people can drown, and the fact that your eyes glowed red wasn't just because of some luminescent chemical."

Jeff frowned thoughtfully. "That makes sense," he said after a minute.

"Now that that's all cleared up...let's get out of here," said Duster.

They were inside Club Titiboo. Nathan had used a portal and some careful enchantments to let them in.

Why had they chosen Club Titiboo?

It was very high up, and required wings, a lift, or a portal to reach. It was in no danger from chimeras or Pigmasks, either. It was quite safe, even in the attic with the Cockeysville mice and the upset old bass. The gently weeping guitars floated eerily around, the Arachnid! were busy spinning new webs to catch Elder Batties, and the beaten drums rolled around of their own accord. The naughtier mice were stealing cheese and peanut butter from the kitchens and thankfully did not interrupt their quiet meal with the Cockeysville mice.

Duster was shocked when he saw his old bass alive in the attic above his room. Lucas's self-esteem was flattened by the fact that, despite being an instrument that would normally collapse under PK Love Alpha, it had taken several to defeat it, plus Boney. The dog in question was starting to glow with fire, but then he shot a jet of gray light towards the bass, changing tactics. The bass shattered as a voice boomed through the attic.

"PREPARE TO DIE!"

A burning laser shot through the junk strewn about the attic as well as pipes, boards, electrical wiring, spiderwebs, living things, and animated objects. Gently weeping guitars with holes burnt in them fell to the ground; beaten drums were punctured through both sides instead of one and collapsed as spiderwebs and boards burnt away. Pipes and copper wire melted, and spiders, bats, and returning naughty mice were scorched.

Lucas reacted quickly. He unsheathed Scylla (the reflected light from the laser gleamed off of it) and held it in front of him. Ness and Nathan did the same thing (although Nathan used Navenstrae, which was a staff) and the laser hit the trio in a brilliant blast of light. A tremendous explosion filled the room-"There's never any peace anymore, it's action, action, action!" cried Paula as she and the others dove through the trapdoor to Duster's old room.

Above them, lights flashed repeatedly and voices were heard, shouting obscenities. Moments later, the ceiling above them crumbled, leaving them hudded under the trapdoor's spot. A wooden frame remained.

Nathan did a backflip onto the frame. Ness and Lucas were with him as a golden-suited Pigmask launched fire at them from seemingly nowhere.

"Infernius!" he bellowed.

"Aquaritaiye Naven!" shouted Nathan.

A huge tidal wave roared towards the blazing inferno that had sprung up; steam hissed as the hot and cold combined and water vapor burst free from the surface of the current. Whether by magic or sheer luck (maybe the current was too fast) the water skipped over the holes and it was somewhat like standing under a tank of water, without the fish.

Well, that wasn't exactly the truth.

An entire whale crashed through the wall, slamming its enormous tail into the golden-suited Pigmask even as lightning bolted from his fingers. Ness deflected the lightning with a chop of his sword; the flat deflected the bolts.

Water began to flood into the entire building, shorting out electronics. Sharks the size of buses crashed into the walls-and broke them.

"Megalodon!" exclaimed Jeff. Nathan seemed to have called an army of prehistoric monsters up from the past.

This must be more elder magic or whatever it was, thought Paula. She was quite right. A sixteen-foot-long beastly fish with plated armor fell through the roof and bit the Pigmask.

But the golden-suited Pigmask was ready. A shield formed and wrenched the fish's jaws apart. (Interesting fact: It was a Dunkleosteus, or Dunkle's bony one in Latin.) Then the Pigmask launched a volley of lightningbolts towards a nearby tylosaurus (a type of prehistoric, dangerous, carnivorous whale somewhat like a sea serpent).

The attic flooded out completely and the water still did not reach the lower parts of the building. If you could see what Arcturus was seeing as he flew around the building, you would see a giant glob of water enveloping the walls outside the attic, with huge, dark forms swimming inside of it.

Duster was more concerned about the beasts swimming above him, and Ness and Lucas. The two teens were actually protected by their swords, which had formed shields around them. Meanwhile, Nathan and the Pigmask were locked in close combat.

Nathan gave a mighty thrust with the staff and flung the Pigmask's golden helmet off.

"Lighter!" shouted Lucas despairingly. Everything stopped, even the sea monsters.

It was quiet amongst the chaos.

Well. That was weird. I was half-asleep when I wrote most of this. xD

So...please review! I would like some feedback!

Thanks to everyone for their reviews!

And Father the Primed Guy, I'm going to pull a bit of a weird explanation of that..."Claus" is a hint.

Until next time...

Next chapter: Daylight 


	17. Daylight

Chapter 17: Daylight

To refresh your memory of chapters 1-9...

Ness and Paula went for a jungle hike and found Hydra's hilt. Frank assisted them in a battle against feral Escaryuba and charging brown beasts. Jeff saved them in the Sky Runner, but on the return trip he was knocked out and impersonated by a Starman until Ness tazed the Starman. They defeated it, went to Threed, found Jeff, and brought Jeff to the hospital, where they defeated the Rays. They also met Lucas, who crushed the zombies with PK Love before Ness and Paula fought off the rest.

It started storming in Threed again and then they found King and Doctor Andonuts. They slipped free from the icy grip of the undead and saved Doctor Andonuts. They returned to the hospital, Jeff recovered, and then they went back to Winters, where they met Richard Pronch's Escaryuba impersonator. Ness dueled him and Paula knocked him out. They returned to the lab and found Hydra's blade and Scylla's blade. Then Lucas, Kumatora, Duster, and Boney showed up, and they fought, losing Scylla's blade in the turmoil. Dr. Andonuts' lab wall was blown up, and then an Escaryuba blew up in Ness's face. Poo came in at the last second as Ness drew Hydra in battle for the first time, causing Lucas to stop his friends from fighting. There was an explanation, then a spaceship came in.

The silvery craft had fired lasers and burnt a hole in Ness's hat. Ness drove Hydra into the ship, then King had used PK Silver for the first time, discovering the amorphous PSI power. The ship exploded, but not before most of them had escaped. Unbeknownst to them, Dr. Andonuts had been killed in the explosion and at first everyone but Duster and Kumatora just laid down in the snow after Ness's strange Tnacigam incident, when the Escaryuba had bitten part of his cheek off.

They discovered Pronch's body and then Paula had become somewhat hysterical about it. Then they noticed Doctor Andonuts' absence, and talked to Bubble Monkey, who had a moose friend. The moose told them that Jeff's father had gone flying into the woods. Ness and Jeff had charged in first, followed by the rest. Everyone but Paula and Jeff ended up fighting an enourmous mechanical monster, one Ness killed using the first known instance of PSI Rockin' (AE). A Pigmask building platform and a body were uncovered by a blast of PK Fire after the dogs smelled blood, and a warning note was discovered. Then an Escaryuba ship came, reanimated bodies, created creatures, and flew off towards Doctor Andonuts' lab. The group teleported away, to Fourside.

In Fourside, Lucas had been taken in the department store and they had followed Escaryuba slime to the hotel, where Ness battled an Escaryuba to save Lucas. The Escaryuba pulled a dirty trick and dumped our heroes into a giant pit, where giant spiders attacked them and King shone with silver light, finally getting his moment of glory as he killed spider after spider and Kumatora turned the place into a raging inferno. Hydra demonstrated its strange abilities by battling spiders on its own, and the pavement above exploded as Paula burnt away the web around Ness, according to his plan. They teleported out, into the Monotolli Building.

The rest went to find them and ascended the Monotolli building in an elevator, with Boney disguised as Duster's Seeing Eye Dog and King disguised as a cat (Hydra's enchantment). They battled a Spanish-speaking robot named Roberto, but when it seemed that they were doomed King unleashed PK Silver, which came out this time as a beam of silver energy. When they reached Ness and Paula, Ness fell asleep, having a vision of the Escaryuba attacking Fourside and giving orders to kill Lucas with zombies.

They teleported to Threed, which was stormier than before, and through the driving rain and lightning, over the thunder, they saw Lucas being dangled above zombies. Ness ended up breakdancing and forcing their heads off, and then they went to the hotel. Ness proceeded to argue with people until three AM, when he finally used PSI Hypnosis Omega. In the morning, they found out that blondes are legally animals and Lucas, Paula, Jeff, and the two dogs were almost snatched by animal control. They escaped from a window and into the woods, with minor gashes. Then Lucas and Jeff argued, and Jeff stormed off. Shortly afterwards, they spotted Nathan riding Arcturus chasing a PSI-flying Gygath.

In the meantime, Ness, Paula, and King went to find Jeff, but were confronted by a giant tick escaping from a fissure that I think is Hell or something. King sent it back, and then they ran through the streets to find Jeff. They finally did find him in an alley as a horde of zombies came around the corner.

This caused them to enter a stack of crates, where the old theater was first discovered. Ness and Paula found moving bloodstains, and an almost-deadly encounter with a ghost caused them to kiss. Nathan saved them with Ekspulca, an exorcism-type spell that disperses ectoplasm. Then he was forced to teleport away due to an agreement with Rycoulth and Gygath.

Afterwards, they returned to Lucas and the others. They explained of their strange experiences and then Ness had a vision of the Escaryuba attacking Polestar Preschool. He made them teleport to Twoson, where they battled Escaryuba and won. Later that night, Rycoulth and Gygath talked about their plans for kidnapping Paula or Kumatora. Nathan interruped them rather rudely, and then blasted Rycoulth through an old shack, a few trees, and into a concrete wall. Gygath had snatched Rycoulth and teleported away.

There was a bit of a scene in the hotel of Twoson involving a warning note and a device causing Paula and Kumatora to lose their appetites and try to be utterly and completely alone, away from each other and everyone else. The device was crushed.

They spent another day in Twoson, then headed to Onett. Onett was found to be dark and stormy like Threed.

* * *

Lighter was indeed the man under the mask.

A smaller Pigmask jumped out, wearing white-an admiral.

"And me!" crowed the fifteen-year-old Fuel. He aimed at Lucas, wielding a deadly laser, but Lucas unleashed a beam of light from the tip of Scylla, much like the one he had fought off the chimaera with. It entered the gun and the gun exploded in light, falling apart.

"Uh-uh. You are NOT fighting these guys!" shouted Lighter, turning around and glaring at fuel.

"You shouldn't be fighting us either! I thought you were our FRIENDS!" yelled Lucas, tearing up.

"Desrytare Naven," muttered Nathan. The sea monsters and water vanished.

"We were never your friends," growled Lighter, unleashing fire from his fingertips.

Just then, Boney stepped in.

King launched him with the rebounding force of a PK Silver to the floor. The energy catapulted him into the rafters.

("Gravitus Desce!") he barked as he soared through the air.

Junk-just junk stored in the attic-collapsed onto Lighter. He gasped for air as Fuel shrieked in terror at a small monster made of ice charging at him. The monster shattered as Fuel exited the attic in a panic.

A yellowish-white parakeet with a turquoise underside had flown into the attic. Nobody noticed him at first except Nathan, who winked at the bird. As Boney watched in disbelief, the bird winked back at his mentor and flew back outside-straight into the storm.

"Why?" asked Lucas softly, tearing up.

It was a terrible moment, clogged with emotions. Duster built a temporary ladder with wall staples, ascending into the attic. He and Kumatora gasped at Lighter's presence under the pile of junk Boney's spell had collapsed.

"Why, Lighter? Why would you ever do this?" asked Duster. Kumatora knelt down next to Lighter and Duster knelt on one knee, keeping his bad leg bent and his foot on the floor.

Ness, meanwhile, did not know Lighter. But he felt Lucas's sorrow. He walked over to his great-grandson and hugged him. Paula did too. They all started to cry, although none but Lucas knew the reason.

They were quiet for a moment before Nathan, relatively emotionless, plunged Navenstrae's blade into the ground.

"I knew it!" he shouted.

"Knew what?" asked Kumatora.

"It's the Sunshine Forest. Lighter LIVES there...this darkness HAS to have something to do with this!"

When nobody reacted, he continued.

"Lucas, didn't the Sunshine Forest recently go dark?"

"Yeah," said Lucas slowly, catching on.

"And aren't people in Threed seemingly more hostile towards you guys, Ness?"

Ness nodded slowly.

"They live in dark places. The only people who seem unaffected are the people of Onett-perhaps because they know who you truly are and aren't brainwashed by the mindwaves conjured by the darkness.

"Because I've got a theory." He paused dramatically. "The people who live in dark areas are slowly being brainwashed by mindwaves actually conjured by the darkness. It's no ordinary darkness. For a while, I've felt the ground underneath my feet vibrating in dark places. Maybe you guys haven't, but there's something wrong. And it's gotta stop."

Ness paused momentarily. This sounded like a decent theory, but how could they stop the darkness?

Then it hit him.

"Have any of you ever heard of that thing where if you change something in the past, it changes in the future, too?" he asked.

"Yeah, but that's too risky. If you go back in time and send Gygath and Rycoulth back into the interdimensional rift, then their evil wouldn't affect anything here and things would happen differently. My cousin did that and ended up making his friend's mother marry someone else by mistake, and then when he went back to his time he realized his best friend was gone, and Al Gore was president."

Duster shook his head.

"Okay, but what are we supposed to do about this darkness stuff?" he asked.

Just then, the world flashed blindingly and something came rushing into Ness's head.

Voices...Duster's, saying something about spare scripts...Kumatora's, talking about actor bios...himself, opening the drawer and pulling out a file about...

"Richard Pronch!" he shouted.

"Huh?" said Kumatora.

"Don't you still have his file?" asked Jeff, catching on quickly.

"Oh! Yeah!" she exclaimed, suddenly realizing what he meant. She took the carefully folded bio out of her pocket and handed it to Jeff.

"What about it, Ness?" he asked. Ness snatched the file from him and scanned it with determination.

"Pronch was in 'The Conqueror Fruits.' We need to watch that. Maybe there's a clue about the darkness in it."

Nathan frowned.

"Er...Ness? That play was never finished. Half the actors were...killed...in the first performance, after the theater went dark."

"Have you ever seen the play?" retorted Poo.

"Er...no," admitted Nathan.

"We don't know how far the play progressed before the actors were killed. Maybe there was something about the darkness."

"Right, but how are we going to get ahold of a tape?" said Nathan.

They all scowled at him.

"First, we're going to need to get back to Eagleland," said Ness.

"Eagleland 1996 it is," replied Nathan. "Help me, Boney, it'll be done faster."

He and Boney drew a series of runes in the air. This was done within seconds. The runes swirled around one another, and as the two focused there was a tremendous burst of energy. The blue portal burst into being, but as it did it began to turn purple.

Fortunately, Rycoulth's dark spell had come too late. The eight of them had leapt into the portal before it could convert fully and send them into a place known as Darkness. (Note: I'm not going to do anything with "Darkness" in this fic, don't expect it.)

* * *

BOOM!

"Son of a...why Threed!" roared Duster over the perpetual moaning and rain.

"Because this is where we're going to find the tapes!" replied Ness. "Come on, we should use PSI Teleport!"

He envisioned the inside of the creepy, dusty old theater and everyone gathered into a circle.

"PSI Teleport!"

In a spectacular display of lights and colors, they vanished into the very fabric of space. Ness could only think of the theater as every atom in his body was separated from the others and thrown through space to the theater. He was so used to it by then that it did not even affect him.

As his atoms re-assembled, he burst out of seemingly nowhere in a flash of blue light and skidded along the floor.

"Alright," he said. "We can start in the corpse-room." A morbid thing described casually can frighten even the bravest of men, and everybody shuddered. But so it was, and they went down the hall into the room with the broken panel covering the stairs. The horrifying smell of rot reached them, and it felt as if cold hands were trying to pull them away from the stairs. They resisted against the force and practically flew down the stairs trying to escape it.

"Tapes!" shouted Paula suddenly as she collided with the filing cabinet. Indeed, her face was level with the door labeled "Tapes."

They opened the door with the key (the one that was in the locker) and, sitting plain in front of them, was a tape labeled "The Conqueror Fruits."

"It was the last play done here...I suppose they would put it in front, then," said Duster. He removed the tape and blew the dust off with a short puff of air.

"Come on, let's get out of here," said Jeff.

Just then the ground began to rumble. Softly at first, and they didn't notice it as they ascended the stairs. But soon, as the power of the quake grew, they were stumbling as they ran towards the door.

BOOM!

A fissure split open in the ground and a giant, hairy leg poked out...

"Mbelembe..." muttered Poo.

("That thing is called a Mbelembe!") exclaimed King as he prepared for a signature PK Silver.

"That's the giant tick that attacked us when we were going to find Jeff!" cried Paula.

"It attacked you! And you survived!" shouted Poo.

"Thanks to King, yeah! PK Silver took it out in seconds!"

"Then use PK Silver, King!"

The dog glowed silver and barked loudly. Silver lightning flashed outside, and energy swirled around them. But the giant tick-Mbelembe-was unaffected by the torrent of energy. It swirled ABOVE the fissure, not in it.

"Can't you change its form? Isn't it an amorphous PSI?" asked Ness.

("I don't know!") howled King. He stomped one paw on the ground and focused solely on the PSI, changing and forming a wave of silver energy to defeat the tick as it had done in the woods.

The energy flickered slightly, shivering and dipping closer to the ground before snapping back into place.

("Come on...") said King to himself. He strove with all his will to force the energy out of its current form, focused solely upon doing that, and tuned out everything but that sole thought and the swirling energy. It flickered again...once...twice...dipped...

King barked.

Instantly, the energy melted into a liquidlike form and flowed down into the fissure. Mbelembe uttered a low-pitched cry of futile outrage and resistance before tumbing over the edge and falling back into its home of magma and rock. A shockwave rocketed through the room as the fissure slammed shut. The force was such that the tape flew out of Duster's hand and out of the window.

"Oh, man," said Kumatora. "Now what?"

"We get it," said Ness irritably. He took out his bat and smashed the window open, then climbed out. There was a moment of silence, then:

"Hey! Come back here!"

There was a burst of energy from outside and they heard Ness swear. Then a tiny squeal split the air, and he climbed back through the window. His hair was sopping wet, and he was clutching a mouse in his hand.

"I live for them! I will never let you stop them! They will win!" it shrieked. Ness took out a string and tied its feet together before placing it on a table.

"The little eejit stole the tape and threw it down a storm drain," he said gruffly. The group gasped.

"But what do we do now?" asked Duster.

"We get it back," said Kumatora. She looked at the wall for a moment, then at Lucas. "Can't you do that PK Crescent thing and blow this wall open?"

"I can just use PK Love," said Lucas airily, shrugging. He took aim at the wall and then, slowly, a hexagon faded into view. It exploded in energy before zeroing in on the wall and-CRASH!-blowing it apart. They ran to the storm drain, bringing the mouse with them.

"PK Blast!" cried Ness. The grate over the drain was blown out of place and down into the dark sewers. They followed it and glanced around, looking for the tape.

"The water will have carried it away by now!" cried the mouse triumphantly.

"I think he's right," admitted Ness.

"Tapes have metal, don't they?" argued Jeff.

"Not really," said Ness.

Jeff paused, then took out a small device that he pointed at the water around them. The water rose slowly, but their feet began to feet drier.

Probably because the water was levitating above their feet.

"It's a tractor beam!" exclaimed Jeff. "The tape oughta come faster. Ah, here it is."

The tape, which had less volume, shot out of the water towards them, a fish biting the end.

"Get off," said Ness, attempting to pull the fish off. He nearly fell over; the fish was strong. It thrashed its tail and attempted to seize the tape from Jeff.

Suddenly Ness remembered the tazer in his pack that he had kept ever since a Starman had impersonated Jeff. He yanked it out, jabbed the prongs into the fish, and shouted in triumph as the fish went rigid from the electricity and dropped off. It tumbled back into the water and was not seen again.

"That worked well," said Kumatora. "But now what? How do we get out?"

"Storm drains have gotta end somewhere," said Duster. "Let's gooo..." He froze. "Er...which way is the ocean?"

"East," began Ness, "but it's the distance of the desert and Fourside."

"We walked that far," argued Jeff. "Remember?"

"True," admitted Ness. "We can try to walk, it might be pretty difficult in all this water. How about we find a manhole nearby and try to get out?"

"I'd rather walk all the way to Fourside," said Duster. Everyone else agreed.

"PSI Shield!" shouted Lucas, his voice reverbrating off the smooth, circular walls. The psychic shield burst into shimmering, brilliant existance, and they could truly appreciate the glow it cast in the pitch-black tunnel. For extra light, Kumatora and Paula used PK Fire as a kind of torch.

They had just lifted their legs up for that first step towards the ocean when BAM! everyone but Lucas fell over.

Lucas had performed the shield PSI in order to block the water, so they could walk normally. It was working, but everyone was so sopping wet they hadn't noticed. They had moved with too much force and toppled over.

"Guys. The water's been blocked with the shield," pointed out Lucas. "We can walk normally."

And so began the long trek towards the ocean.

* * *

They had been walking for what felt like an hour. They had walked under numerous storm drains in Threed and now the drains had stopped; indeed, the water level was lower here. They were, in fact, under the sunny, bright Doko Doko Desert. In truth it was sometime around five PM, but it still felt like midnight because they hadn't seen sunlight for a very long time.

("How much longer is this going to last?") complained King.

"Hold your tongue. A true warrior never complains and accepts his burden," said Poo to the distraught mutt. King grumbled a bit to himself before quieting.

Suddenly, a beam of bright daylight broke the darkness. A storm drain-in Fourside!

"Maybe we can get up there!" cried Ness triumphantly.

"Those are manholes you're thinking of," said Kumatora.

"Oh, yeah," said Ness, crestfallen. "Where are we going to find one of those here?"

"They're everywhere," Paula told him. "Remember?" Ness nodded thoughtfully.

They kept walking until they had found a manhole. They climbed the slippery ladder, Ness going first because of his PK Blast ability, and blew the cover out of the ground. It flew twenty feet into the air and landed in a tree, where some disturbed nesting birds squawked angrily.

The bright sunlight came as a shock to all of them. They hadn't seen it since...when HAD they seen it? Twoson?

Either way, it was a relief, and it was also evening. They drank in the sight of the sun and clouds and blue sky and normal people. They drank in the day. They drank in life and everything normal.

Well, they did until a portly businessman trod on Duster's foot and he jumped in surprise, accidentally throwing the tape into the air.

"You moron!" shouted Kumatora. "Jeff! Where's that tractor beam!"

He took out the beam and aimed it at the tape. It slowed down in midair and floated at the tractor beam. As it did so, the same businessman ran back across the street and leaped high into the air, snatching the tape and running off with superhuman speed.

"PSI Teleport Alpha!" shouted Ness, and he tore after the businessman, leaving the ground behind him scorched black. Poo followed, and the two teenagers were soon out of sight.

"We should probably go see what's happening," said Paula.

Unable to use PSI Teleport, they ran down the street looking for the three of them. Just then, there was shouting from the coast, which was nearby.

"You scum!" shouted Ness. "Come back here!"

They ran to the shouting and found Ness and Poo glaring at the ocean.

A long, twisting sea serpent was visible winding its way through the dark waters. Paula sprinted past Ness and Poo and fired off a bolt of PK Thunder Gamma, which split into three bolts. The bolts electrified the water around the serpent, and a small object flew into the air.

"The tape!" shouted Duster. He searched frantically for a net of some sort, but all he saw were a bunch of people playing volleyball. They, apparently, could not see the paralyzed serpent. But they had paused to stare quizzically at the group. Ness supposed that he and his friends would look weird to passerby.

Volleyball...

Duster ran across the beach, limping worse than ever. He looked so comical that the people playing volleyball started laughing, at least until he borrowed their net.

He had needed a net, and now he had found one. Whirling it around, he tossed it at the ocean. It flew out about 20 feet and miraculously floated, keeping the tape almost dry as it hit the net. Poo, who was well-coordinated, was able to dash out onto the water with PSI Teleport Alpha and snatch the tape, perform a sharp turn, and come back without falling into the water.

They were all gasping, panting, soaking wet, filthy, and covered in blood. But they had the tape. And now it was time to find out how to stop the darkness once and for all.

* * *

This was a VERY short chapter, but okay, I wanted to get to Chapter 18 as fast as possible. Chapter 18 is a big turning point.

PLEASE REVIEW! I would like some feedback!

I know, the tractor beam was a bit of a deus ex machina, but there have been a lot of those. (Thanks to the guy who reviewed my story on , I'll try to review my chapters better and put in LESS deus ex machinas.) Anyway, I'm not going to write a big long scene about finding the tape in the water. It would have gotten so soaking wet it would be useless. Not like it wasn't already wet.

Next Chapter: The Conqueror Fruits


	18. The Conqueror Fruits

Chapter 18: The Conqueror Fruits

Rise of The Escaryuba is coming to an end. Chapter 20 or 21 is when I plan to end it.

But don't worry: there's going to be a sequel. Well, if people like this one enough.

Dumb Clone of Ness: I liek it.

His opinion doesn't really count. He's a dumb clone. A CLONE, people, like the kind that betrayed the Jedi.

Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

"Come on. We gotta find a VCR," said Ness. The square tape seemed like its entire purpose was to help them stop the oncoming darkness. And at the moment, that was quite true.

"There are VCRs at the hotel," said Paula. "Plus, we can spend the night there and be ready to fight off the darkness tomorrow."

Ness used a fast PSI Teleport Alpha to bring them all to the hotel. He threw money down on the counter.

"Room 15B is available," said the guy at the desk. He handed them a key and they tore up the stairs to Room 15B. The door flew open and Ness leapt across the room, landing in front of the VCR. The tape was jammed into the opening, and he did a backflip into a cross-legged sitting position on the floor, leaning against the bed. Duster shut the door and they sat down to watch the performance as Ness turned on the television.

At first it was dark. Then they heard a voice.

"We are proud to present to you...The Conqueror Fruits! Our actors have worked long and hard on this play, and so have our tech producers! So..."

A short speech followed. Then, the lights came up.

A man, obviously a younger Richard Pronch, sat on a sofa, reading a book.

THUMP.

"What was that?" he asked. He walked to the right and opened the door there, peering offstage. Then there was another thump. He walked back through the door, carrying a trash can. "I can't believe this! Who would throw a trash can at someone's house!"

There was a drumming noise from inside of it. Pronch opened the can and looked into it. Immediately, a banana peel-propelled by a spring, thought Jeff-flew out of the garbage can and "attacked" Pronch. He was a good actor, thought Ness to himself. It seemed like the peel was actually attacking him. He finally wrenched it off of his face and clenched it tightly in his fist.

"What's this?" he asked.

A tiny speaker inside the peel replied, "Fear the Escaryuba!" Then the peel exploded.

The play went on for a while, with more and more people being aware of the Escaryuba's existence. Pronch, playing Jeremy, led the fight against the aliens.

Finally, the lights in the theater were dimmed. The sprinkler system turned on above the stage and lightning sound effects played.

Then a beam of light broke the darkness. A silvery spaceship was visible, suspended above the actors. Jeremy and his group of fighters quickly leaped into the beam and were sucked up into the ship. A brief change of scenery, and they were in the ship. Actors in banana suits quickly attacked them, and there was a brief fighting scene.

Finally, Jeremy and his men had pinned the Escaryuba.

"Who is your leader!" demanded Jeremy.

"Nyelskeb!" coughed one in a panic.

"And where is he!"

"He is in the mothership!"

"What's causing this darkness!"

"Giant machines, under the ground! Where the ground vibrates-"

The lights went out entirely. There were several muffled thumps, and then the lights came back on. There was screaming.

"They're gone!" shouted a guy offstage.

"What! Who's gone!" roared Pronch.

"Some of the people back here!"

Some of the actors portraying Jeremy's men were also gone. A few of the men playing the Escaryuba were gone as well.

"This is NOT staged, people. Please, help us find these missing actors. We give you full authorization to go backstage and help search."

Many of the people in the audience rose to help. A babble of talk was all that was heard for a moment, and people going through the auditorium. Then there was a scream.

"There's something down here!" cried a faint voice.

"Oh my God! It's the actors! They're all...dead!" shouted another.

"That's the corpse-room," whispered Ness.

It was dark outside now, making the situation a bit more frightening. It was also raining again.

On the TV, there was screaming, the screams of panicked civilians in Threed.

"We know that it's caused by machines," said Ness the next morning.

"And Nathan said something about feeling the ground vibrating underneath his feet," said Jeff.

"We have to find the machines and destroy 'em, then!" exclaimed Kumatora.

"It's not that simple," argued Jeff. "You see, if the ground is vibrating, and not walls, then clearly these machines are underground! And how are we supposed to dig underground like that?"

"The first thing we can do," said Ness, "is find Nathan. We can at least stop the darkness in the Nowhere Islands, with his help."

"That's a good point, but how are we supposed to find Nathan?" asked Kumatora.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the future, Nathan himself and Boney were practicing magic once more.

"Okay, so you take your paw, raise it up over your head...then bring it down and point it. Focus on the object you want to bring...Traevis!"

Nathan summoned a book easily. Boney wasn't focusing hard enough and summoned a rock instead of the bone he wanted. The rock conked him on the side of his head and he was dazed for a moment.

"You have to FOCUS, Boney, or else you won't summon the object. Focus, focus, focus...okay, now that we've both got items, let's go outside and see if we can get them to fly AWAY from us."

The dog whimpered and they walked out the door.

"Okay, hold the item...wait, you can't hold stuff...I taught you basic levitation, right? Okay, levitate the rock...now wheel your paws around, like this...pull your left paw back and strike at the rock with your right paw, but don't actually hit it. Irves!"

Boney got it right on the first try, and the rock flew towards his target-another of the large boulders Nathan conjured for target practice.

"Very well done, Boney! Let's practice that some more, until you've-"

Nathan suddenly stumbled, even though he was standing still. He fell forwards, but a burst of flame shot out of the bottom of his left shoe and propelled that leg in front of him. He stood there for a moment in that stance, thinking hard.

"Uh-oh...I think someone's calling me..." muttered Nathan.

("Who could be doing that?") asked Boney.

"There's a multitude of people, but a lot of them are in THIS time period...so they can just use telepathy...the others are back in Eagleland. Remember what I told you about Rycoulth?"

("That he...it is trying to use the darkness to...capture their minds or something? And that magic and PSI alone are stopping that from happening?")

"And also that he recently attempted to steal the tape of 'The Conqueror Fruits.'" The intelligent reptillian biped had appeared in disguise-a member of the Order had informed him of that. He paused, staring gallantly at the trees in the distance. Wispy clouds floated overhead, and Boney had just turned his head up to look at them when Nathan spoke again. "Whoever's calling me, it feels urgent. Maybe we should go back to Eagleland."

("That sounds relatively logical,") answered Boney in a manner similar to Jeff's.

"Right. You remember what I taught you about portals. You know, the runes?"

("Yeah,") answered Boney. It had been an interesting lesson, especially when he had accidentally opened up a portal and Cthulhu Fhtagn had escaped. Luckily, the great Elder God's magic and power had shrunken as it entered this dimension, and Nathan, Boney, and the seven Order of the Dragon members (plus the magic staff Navenstrae) had beaten it back after a few days.

"Okay, then. Let's get moving," said Nathan resolutely as he performed a series of complex motions. First, he crossed his arms in an X in front of his face, then performed a double-karate-chop backwards before raising his arms, palms up and putting his hands together above his head. He brought them down to his chest and made a movement like he was pushing outwards to either side of him. His hands began to glow, and he and Boney rapidly drew runes in the air.

The runes swirled around each other in a verticle circle before slamming into one another in the middle of the circle. Bolts of lightning flew inwards from all directions as energy burst outwards, and energy and lightning crackled everywhere for a minute. When onlookers finally saw the portal, it was already closing and the tip of Boney's tail and the very end of Nathan's cape were vanishing into it.

Portal travel is a very strange thing. As Nathan and Boney jumped in, the blue swirling energy dissipated into black. Moments later, psychedelic rainbow energy burst into being all around them. They flew through it faster than light, their bodies only retaining their shape because it was a magical portal and not a black hole. Flying past them, they saw other things that were either stuck in the vast "dimension" (so to speak) or flying through to reach other portals. Crates, fruit, an entire tree, nails, computers, even a house were stuck here, while things flying through included humans (from the Order of the Dragon to just regular guys) and other beings (indescribable).

BOOM!

A supersonic wave of energy washed over them as they rocketed through their destination portal. The rainbow energy and objects faded from view and all that was left was black. Then, blue energy swirled into view and they burst through it, into a (mercifully empty) garbage can.

"Ouch," muttered Nathan. "So where are we?"

("Looks like...the inside of a garbage can.")

"I knew you would say that. Expelsae!"

The spell hit the bottom of the garbage can and caused it to expel its contents-Nathan and Boney. The two flew backwards through the air and landed on their feet. Nathan reached up with his mechanical arm and adjusted his cape, which was sitting sideways. Boney glanced around.

("Looks like Twoson,") he remarked.

"Huh. Let's check Onett first-but I don't want to teleport, that may attract attention if I burst into the middle of a crowd. Have you studied that textbook I gave you?"

("Yes, why?")

"Did you read about the basic speed spell in the first chapter?"

("Of course! I love learning magic!")

"Have you practiced it? Sorry I forgot to mention it during lessons, it must have-"

("Rapa Etus!")

Boney sped to Onett and back within five seconds.

"Very good," smiled Nathan. "Okay, we need to speed through Eagleland. Come on."

"Rapa Etus!"

("Rapa Etus!")

The pair sped to Onett and Nathan used a spell that detects magical presences (like he had used in Thunder Tower, back in the Nowhere Islands during the showdown with Rycoulth). If you remember correctly, Hydra and Scylla had magic powers of their own, so the spell would work if it detected Ness or Lucas. At the moment, nothing happened, so they shot through Twoson. Nothing. Threed, nothing as well. Then, in Fourside, they got some results.

"Ah! Here we are! Come on, Boney, where would they be?"

("Uhh...we can check the shops first, then the hospital, then the hotel.")

The bakery was empty, as was the department store (predictably, seeing what happened every time they entered it). The hospital was devoid of anyone by the name of Ness, Paula, Jeff, Poo, Lucas, Duster, or Kumatora, and the pet section turned up no clues either. They checked the Monotolli Building-nothing. They checked the cafe, and finally the hotel.

"Revaelis Magha!" he shouted, causing the shocked secretary to panic. A brown, singed, slightly glowing dog and a strange teenager with a mohawk and mechanical arm had just charged into the hotel and shouted nonsense.

("They're here, aren't they?") asked Boney.

"Yeah, they are." He turned to the secretary. "Is anyone by the name Ness renting a room?"

"Er...yes...Room 15B..."

Without another word, the pair shouted "Rapa Etus" one more time and flew up the stairs, out of sight.

"Er...what?" asked the bemused secretary shakily.

* * *

"I don't think he's coming," fretted Paula.

"Relax, he should be here-" began Ness.

The door fell over and Nathan and Boney stood there triumphantly, illuminated by the evening light.

"We spent all evening discussing it! We've figured it out! The darkness!" blurted out Lucas excitably.

Ness and Paula were sitting cross-legged together, leaning against the bed in the semidarkness (the shades were drawn and the blinds were closed). Lucas had been sitting next to Paula, with his legs straight-out, but he had withdrawn them and sprang six feet (and over the end of the bed) into the air with shock and happiness at seeing Boney and Nathan.

"As Lucas so...eloquently...put it, we have discovered the root cause of the absence of light," said Jeff.

"Interesting," said Nathan.

("Ooo! What is it!") whimpered Boney excitably.

"It's caused by machines under the ground. 'Where the ground vibrates' is what the actor in the play said. And it all fits-the ground vibrates where it's dark. All we need is a way to open up the ground," said Duster quickly.

"Okay, guys-well, I really have to go. Remember that agreement? Boney, HELP them, please, I'm not supposed to be near you here either, but since you're only one dog and you have magic I suppose it's alright. Use your textbook and practice digging up chunks of earth where the ground vibrates. Head back to Threed, you guys-start there and work your way back to Onett. Boney, you can use portals to some degree-try to open one to the Nowhere Islands once you've cleared the darkness here and we can destroy the machines back in the Nowhere Islands. I am going to trust you with this responsibility. Remember Hydra and Scylla-I've really got to go now!"

He vanished in a flash.

"Okay, so what do we remember of that?" piped up Kumatora after a moment of silence.

"He had that agreement with Rycoulth that was going to take effect," said Paula.

"Boney is going to help us," said Lucas.

"He has to pracice digging up earth so he can uncover the machines," said Jeff.

"We've gotta head back to Threed to do that," said Kumatora.

"We must return to Onett and destroy the machine there," said Poo.

("I have to open a portal to return,") said Boney, shivering at the thought of such a huge responsibility and difficulty.

("And then we can destroy the machines in the Nowhere Islands,") finished King.

"It's more of a 'must' situation," said Jeff. "But okay, you may phrase it that way."

"I guess that means we're going to Threed," stated Ness.

"I guess it does," agreed Jeff.

* * *

They packed up their things and checked out of the hotel. Walking out onto the bright, sunny street (it was a very shocking thing for them to do after being in Threed and the Nowhere Islands for so long) and standing in a line facing the exit tunnel, Ness asked if they were ready.

"We are quite ready," said Poo.

"Right, then. PSI Teleport Alpha!"

The group tore off towards Threed, speeding through the desert as fast at close to Mach 3. Their feet levitated off of the ground but momentum kept them moving.

"Graaaaooooohhhhh..."

A hideous moan broke the supersonic field of moving air that enveloped them as they rushed through the tunnel towards Threed. The sheer vibrations of the vexing sound shattered their teleport and an electric shock ripped through the group.

Ness shook violently and then collapsed, getting up moments later and glancing around, as did everyone else, one by one.

And then Kumatora looked to her right.

A reeking spectre burst through the wall. Its body was made of a rippling green mist that followed and overcame itself, in all its clamminess. It was driven by some unknown energy, and was dark in spots as if it had eyes and other distinct facial features. The smell was an intolerable reek, like that of rotted saerkraut or possibly worse.

"Aah!" she cried. "PK Fire!"

The PSI flared into existence and slammed against the mist. There was a small burst of fire and the mist was incinerated. An unearthly scream filled the tunnel as it did so.

("Something is horribly wrong,") gasped Boney. ("We need to get to Threed-NOW!")

"PSI Teleport Alpha!" shouted Ness, and they tore off to Threed. They passed the bleak meadow between Threed and the desert and moved so fast through the tunnel the vibrations of the moaning did not have time to shatter their teleport and they slammed full-force into rushing water.

Seeing as they were still in a teleport, there was a colossal explosion of water which shattered the weakest buildings and slammed into zombies, blasting their heads off and ultimately destroying them.

"We need to find where the ground vibrates!" roared Ness over the wind, rain, lightning, moaning, and rushing water.

"Try the field!" replied Paula loudly.

He teleported once more and this time he used Teleport Beta. This would enable them to not have their teleport shattered by vibrations of moaning, and they landed in front of the circus tent.

The circus tent?

"My God!" exclaimed Jeff, who was in fact an atheist and did not believe in a god. "The ground-it's like an intense vibration of the earth!"

("He means earthquake!") said Boney.

Realizing that it was easier to speak telepathically, Paula spoke.

("There wasn't a circus tent here before! We have to investigate!")

Ness looked at her through the storm. He was not wearing his hat anymore, his hair was messed-up, his pack was camo instead of yellow, and he wore a black shirt over blue and dark jeans. He was certainly much different than when they had been fighting Giygas, with his trademark hat, smile and bright yellow backpack. A scowl and a rather neutral expression otherwise were common now, but you had to admit he looked cool.

("I'm going in,") he said.

("I'll go with you,") said Lucas.

They unsheathed the brilliantly glowing blades Hydra and Scylla and, after taking a final look at their friends, leapt into the circus tent.

* * *

The teens immediately realized that it was not an ordinary tent. It was completely dry inside-and the ground shook like quivering Jello over a speaker emitting low-pitched binaural tones, or maybe just Jello that was being shaken back and forth.

"What's with this place?" asked Lucas.

"It's here," responded Ness instinctively. "The machine is here-right under our feet. We've found it, Lucas! We've done it!"

"But we have one more, and also the Nowhere Islands," said Lucas depressingly.

"We'll have Nathan in the Nowhere Islands, it'll be a snap," said Ness, waving off the remark. "And Onett...I think I already know where it is."

"Where?" asked Lucas curiously.

"No time to speak now-get Boney!"

("Boney! Come here! It's under our feet! In the tent!")

The brown dog practically flew into the tent, and without even speaking to Ness or Lucas, barked a spell.

Nothing happened, besides a tiny chunk of dirt flying into the air.

He tried again.

Nothing.

The flustered dog barked until his voice was hoarse, and then he looked up at Lucas with a forlorn, miserable expression on his face.

("I haven't learned how to do things like that yet,") he whimpered. ("I can't.")

"I can," said Kumatora, walking calmly into the tent with Duster, Jeff, King, Poo, and Paula. "We heard Boney barking but knew nothing was happening...so...we formed a plan. Duster, get the wall staples and the Rope Snake ready. Jeff, get that tractor beam of yours ready, and Paula, Ness, Lucas-use a PSI Shield. I have an idea. Underground, right? So...how about...PK Ground!"

A fissure split open underneath their feet and they fell into it.

"PSI Shield!" commanded Ness, Paula, and Lucas, causing an incredibly powerful triple shield to envelop the group and block the colossal explosion that came roaring up at them.

Poo had leapt back immediately, dodging the fall. Duster jammed wall staples into the wall of the fissure as a foothold and used Rope Snake to grab Jeff's shirt. Jeff pointed the tractor beam at the rest of them, who were falling into the flaming remains of a giant machine. They slowed, stopped, and reversed, floating slowly towards Jeff. Duster climbed the ladder, and Poo took the complaining Rope Snake as Duster climbed out of the hole. He took the tractor beam as Jeff climbed up after him, keeping it carefully pointed at the floating group. Ness grabbed hold of the Wall Staples and hoisted himself up. As Jeff took the tractor beam back, Duster dug his heels into the ground and, taking Rope Snake, used him to grab people out of the floating mass and pull them up.

Finally, all of them were standing on the edge of the vast fissure and, gasping and panting, peering into the smouldering wreckage of...what was that?

"What is that?" asked Duster, voicing all of their thoughts.

"I think it's one of those machines mentioned in the play," replied Paula.

"Awesome," grinned Lucas.

Ness suddenly realized that something bright was shining outside.

"What IS that?" he wondered to himself. He stepped outside of the tent and looked up.

All the others heard was a joyous shout from outside. They rushed outside and looked upwards as well, and the nine of them danced on the streets in happy celebration. Withered zombies were killed instantly at the first touch of sunlight and returned to the dust of the earth, and people made zombies were reverted back to their original, living form.

It was a happy day in Threed, when residents noticed the pounding rain was gone, the streets (though soaked) were visible, they could step outside for once, and the bright sun shone down upon them.

The glistening grass waved cheerily in the noon breeze, as puffy white clouds floated along the sky. Children danced and played, and Ness smiled to see a game of baseball immediately starting.

But the nine of them faced a much more dreadful future. Hunching their shoulders, they faced the tunnel leading to Twoson-and ultimately, a storming Onett, and a dreadful enemy that they knew they would ultimately face.

* * *

I hope you liked this chapter. It wasn't too hard to write-it just kinda came. I'm ending this soon, but expect a sequel. The Rise of the Escaryuba Trilogy will have plenty more to offer.

PLEASE REVIEW!

You remember that Hydra and Scylla have hilt, blade, and jewel now, right?

I actually kinda liked the ending this time. Heh, I had a dream I was Ness and in this fanfic. That was kind of strange-chapter seven especially. (If you re-read 7, you would know. It was really long, though-the longest in the fic so far.)

Hmm...how about some more little miscellaneous facts?

-Ness actually put on different clothes in Chapter 16. He wears a black, button-up shirt over a blue t-shirt, no hat, and dark jeans. His sneakers are white and his backpack is camo green now.

-I was going to put in an Order member called Lynn instead of Boney-but that would be a deus ex machina.

-Ness has an electric guitar that he actually knows how to play...maybe I'll put in a rock performance at the end of the series.

Duster: Hey. Are you ever going to publish that script?  
Me: No. This "script" of which thou speakst is unusual enough to be seen only by mine eyes, and mine eyes alone, lest a curse fall upon thou.  
Duster: K, then what's with the Shakespeare stuff?  
Me: I am not able to answer that question that thou hast arisen before me.  
Duster: ...  
Me: Thou hast an ellipse. Why thou hast an ellipse is unbeknownst to me, lest thou explain to me why.  
Duster: Uh. What?  
Me: Hehe...it's fun to confuse Duster. Anyway...the next chapter is called "Return to Nowhere," I'm not making the restoration of Onett TOO big, and the MAIN event is returning to the Nowhere Islands anyway (as you can tell). Find out if it's successful, read Chapter 19 and review this one!

Cya for now, Chapter 19 coming up soon!


	19. Return to Nowhere

Chapter 19: Return to Nowhere

Not too many notes here, they were given in the end of last chapter.

However...

Ness says that he thinks he knows where Onett's machine is. While a lot of this chapter is spent in Onett with dialogue (oh no!), more is spent returning to and being in the Nowhere Islands.

Read and review! Enjoy!

* * *

"Arf! Arrf arf! Grrrrr...arf!"

That dog again. He was tired of that dog now and its death was in order.

"Krael!"

The simple yet dark spell ripped savagely through the air.

"Braechas Luz!" shouted another voice. A beam of bright light appeared from seemingly nowhere and slammed into the dark crescent. There was a minor explosion and neither spell remained.

"Him again..." snarled the reptillian angrily.

"Yes, him," agreed a furious tailed figure. "PK Thunder AE!"

BOOM!

Five vicious bolts of lightning crackled into electric existence, all bolting rapidly towards the source of the light beam.

"He's gone. Believably," muttered the reptillian.

"Gone from that location, maybe, but I would never leave you," said Nathan sarcastically, appearing from nowhere and gripping the ends of his cape. "We all LOVE Rycoulth." A taunting laugh and he was out of reach, having teleported in a blinding flash to avoid the jagged claw that came in response.

"EXPELSAE!" screamed Rycoulth in all his-its-frustration. The spell, when used on a human, was to force it to vomit up the contents of its stomach and sometimes more.

Nathan lazily waved a hand. The jet of yellow light ricocheted off of the invisible forcefield.

"Boney could have deflected that," laughed Nathan, whipping out Navenstrae and twirling it.

"Reincarde!" roared Rycoulth.

Immediately, a dead hand burst through the paved road and...

...was run over by a supersonic wave of energy rocketing past them.

Run over?

"Ness?" said Nathan to himself. He had no time to consider that for himself, as Rycoulth and Gygath flew down the street after them. Blowing up the street around him and causing a colossal crater to appear, he flew off after them, wings spread wide.

* * *

Ness charged through all the curves and bends of Twoson, leaping over trees and houses and sometimes cars. He passed the preschool, Burglin Park, the Twoson Department Store, and the entrance to the Peaceful Rest Valley before vanishing into the dense forest passage to Onett.

And it was then that the group realized what was happening to Onett.

"WHAT IS THAT!" roared Ness.

Jeff removed something from his satchel and looked through it at the air around them, attempting to see.

"Ohh, man..." he muttered. "This is NOT good. Not good at all."

"What the hell is it!" shouted Ness, snatching the peculiar goggles from Jeff and peering through them himself. "OH MY GOD!"

"What, what?" fretted Paula as Ness handed her the goggles.

"The city is overrun by chimeras," said Jeff. "Those are NVGs-night vision goggles."

"My God..." whispered Duster. "I don't believe it-how?"

"Starmen...Escaryuba...Rycoulth...Gygath..." muttered Ness furiously, unsheathing Hydra. "GET OUTTA-"

"Shut up!" hissed Kumatora, putting a hand over Ness's mouth. "You realize our situation? Chimeras are even MORE dangerous than before-remember that cobra-bull-rocket launcher-flamethrower thing that charged into Tazmily and blew up half the place?"

"Oh yeah..." said Ness.

("I could use a spell-break 'em, burn 'em...") said Boney. ("You know, fireball, Romperis, et cetera.")

"Good," said Duster. "Use those."

"Not so fast," said Jeff. "What if there are purely mechanical beasts in there with fuel tanks and you use that fireball spell of yours?"

("What if I just use Romperis?")

"Good point," said Kumatora hurriedly, ending the conversation.

"What I want to know is HOW this happened," said Lucas, peering out into the darkness.

"Portal, probably," said Ness.

A bolt of lightning flew horizontally at them and hit Hydra; it glanced off of the blade and hit a tree, causing the tree in question to explode in fire.

"Grr-RAR!" screamed something that sounded like an enraged jaguar. A black object-which they could not see because everything around them was also black-flew into their path and yowled again.

It stood up and growled softly at them. This growl amounted to a snarl, and then it reared back, lightning cannons flashing madly and reinforced claws flailing, attempting to kill them all-

"PSYCHOFYRE!"

A jet of bluish fire streaked through the air and enveloped the jaguar-chimera, lifting it up into the air. The beast convulsed and then there was a burst of electric-fire. It was thrown out of sight.

"Don't ask questions-we've got to get moving!" yelled a male voice.

"Who are you?" asked Ness, ignoring the command.

"The name's Flynn-move, now!"

They sprinted through the darkness, knowing that Flynn-whoever he was-was with them. He must be an Order member, thought Duster.

"In here!"

They had entered the city and were running past a building when the door to it flew open.

Mach Pizza...Onett branch? Hadn't it been closed last time they had seen it?

"Go in!"

They ran inside of the small building, astonishing the guy at the counter.

"So, Flynn, who are you exactly?" asked Ness, turning around.

For some reason, there was a bird in the shop-an eagle, to be more exact.

"I'm an eagle, that's who I am, and I'm in the Order of the Dragon," said the eagle.

"YOU'RE Flynn!" exclaimed Jeff. "But-but-"

"It's called magic, smart guy," snapped Flynn.

"What's the deal with Onett?" inquired Ness.

"It's become infested with chimeras," said Flynn in a manner much like Nathan's. "Ever since Rycoulth and Gygath planted that machine here, it's been nothing but rain, darkness, lightning, and evil little monsters like that thing I saved you from earlier." He paused. "I was wondering whether Hedwig and Penny might come, but-"

"Who are those?" questioned Lucas.

"They're from another dimension. It's no big deal, you'll find out about them later. The point is, Onett is in BIG trouble."

"We figured that," muttered Kumatora.

"As Nathan has already told you, we need to destroy this machine. Technically I'm not supposed to be near you either, but meh-I didn't sign some contract with that bipedal reptile. I wouldn't call him intelligent-he doesn't have enough brains to tie his own tentacles together. But that's beside the point.

"We need to kill off these chimeras. Most likely there's a manticore and chimaera out there too, but we'll deal with those when we get to them. The thing is, we can't see the chimeras in the darkness. And they aren't like zombies-a lot of them LIKE sunlight. If we're gonna destroy them and save this town, we've gotta blow up that machine first. Most likely your little magician dog here-" he looked at Boney "-tried to lift up the earth last time. And most likely he failed. Most likely, you found an alternate method involving some other ground-splitting thing."

"Sir, are you buying or leaving?" the guy at the counter shakily asked Duster (Duster was the oldest and the man assumed that he was the leader).

"Neither," snapped Ness. "This is for the world, and if we leave you'll all be killed."

The man did not respond, although Duster bought a pizza anyway and they shared it. Even Flynn took a slice, which was unusual because birds don't normally eat pizza. But, then again, Flynn was not normal.

"Destroying that machine will remove the darkness and rain but not the chimeras," said Flynn. "What I said before-we need to see them to fight them. Nathan might be able to see them without destroying the machine-he's second-in-command of the entire Order and a brilliant wizard. But I'm not Nathan. I might be a commander of several divisions but I'm not nearly as good as him."

"Who's the leader?" asked Paula curiously.

"Er...we can't exactly disclose that, he's a highly targeted man, and even with his magic he wouldn't be able to protect himself if the enemy (they could be listening right now) knows his name. It's a deep magic that only the most powerful wizards would know. And Nathan isn't one of those, although the Lord Darkness itself probably is. The only thing is, it will only use its energies on the most powerful foes. So we're all safe."

"I never thought of Nathan as a wizard before," said Duster thoughtfully.

"But...anyway..." continued Flynn, "we need to get to that machine. The issue is, we don't know whe-"

"I do," interjected Ness suddenly. "Follow me!"

He charged out of the door, still holding the remains of the pizza slice.

They wondered where he was going. He went to his house and looked west.

"Ness! Are you crazy!" shouted Paula as she hurried to catch up.

"No! I think I know!"

He grabbed her hand and tugged her to the foot of the large hill where the meteor had crashed a year ago. It was still there and still burning softly, even through the rain.

"It's in there!" he cried, acting most unlike himself.

"I believe he is correct," said Poo. "Do you feel the ground vibrating?"

Flynn flew towards the hill and landed on it.

"It is!" he exclaimed. "Brilliant, Ness-but how did you know it was in here?"

"Remember when Rycoulth sucked us into that portal of his that threw us into the Nowhere Islands?"

"Yeah," said Lucas. "What about it?"

"And we crashed through the wall and landed in that little cave?"

"Oh, yeah," said Kumatora. "That cave. It was shaking a lot."

"That's because the machine was right next to us the whole time!"

"Interesting," said Jeff. "So what do we do?"

"We destroy it," said Flynn resolutely.

("How are we supposed to do that?") yipped King, panicking suddenly at a loud BOOM! of thunder.

"I'm a wizard. I can do pretty much anything," snapped the large eagle. "Leviterra Molevi!"

CRACK!

An outline of the ground glowed brightly all of a sudden. The intensity of the glow increased steadily-then the ground exploded out of its place and some thirty feet into the air. There was a moment of silence as the terrible black machine with its skull-and-crossbones painted on it.

("Romperis!") howled Boney.

A jet of pure grey light shot out of his paw and rammed full-force into the machine, causing a colossal explosion. Fire shot through the rain and illuminated everything around them-the chimeras, the ground, plants, houses, even the very air.

"Brilliant job, Brownie or whatever your name is!" roared Flynn over the noise. "Now we've gotta deal with these chimeras!"

As the machine stopped working, the clouds went away, the sun came out, it became bright and sunny, and the rain stopped.

But, unlike Threed, it was not safe to come outside yet.

Ness surveyed the city from the hill his house was located on.

Everywhere, there were chimeras.

"So many..." he muttered to himself.

("How are we going to take them all out?") wondered Boney.

"PSI and magic. With a little physical violence, of course," smirked Flynn.

* * *

"They have destroyed it!" spat the commander.

"Another one...has Rycoulth placed the chimeras in their proper place?" inquired the large, shadowed figure sitting-in a peculiar fashion, but sitting-in the large metallic chair.

"Yes, leader," nodded the commander.

"Good. How many?"

"I would not know that, sir. Rycoulth refuses direct contact with us, preferring instead to send messages through Gygath or written."

"Interesting. The chimeras should be doing their work now...and that little surprise I put in there should perform its share as well, if all is done and the chimeras are defeated." It paused. "You are dismissed."

"Yes, sire," acknowledged the commander, and with a low, sweeping bow, he left the room.

* * *

"PK Fire!"

The flames swept over the Alpha Dogfish and Ness, holding his bat, hit the biological chimera over the head with it. It fell over, dazed, and hit the ground.

"Another one down," said Duster as he delivered a sudden kick to a mole with a drills for paws; it flew backwards and tunneled back into the ground.

"Natura Pathoges!" cried Flynn, soaring above their heads and unleashing a sickeningly green ray of energy. The chimeras it hit slumped to the ground, apparently nauseated and sick. "Logos Ethos!" This beam, a purplish blue, hit several chimeras and they simply walked off, as if having a sudden realization.

"What was that?" asked Kumatora.

"Pathoges-germs. Sickness. Natura-nature, natural, Natura Pathoges is natural germs. Logos Ethos is Latin for logic ethics or something like that, it makes them think about what they're doing and evaluate it morally. Kind of a lame spell, but hey-it works."

("Inferna Spherica!") shouted Boney, unleashing a scorching fireball that roared down the street and hit several chimeras. ("Romperis!") A mechanical extension attached to a lion shattered and, at a spell from Flynn, the lion healed and the remainder of the machine fell off.

"Well done, Boney!" praised Duster as he performed a sort of tornado whirling kick with his heel, all the while flinging volleys of wall staples and pinning chimeras in every direction. Lucas had a simple but effective yo-yo, and was performing a rather neat trick with it. Chimeras were being tangled up and he was flinging them around like tin cans.

Ness hit the horse-tarantula chimera hard and it crumpled to the ground. He followed up by whirling and slamming the bat into the Kangasharks beginning to surround him. A quick blast of fire from Boney and they were making some sort of pain-noise and scampering off down the street.

"Scampering?" cried Flynn. "Wait a moment, I thought kangaroos bounced."

"It's a chimera between a strong fish and a mammal. It's bound to do the in-between action because the DNA contrasts and somehow settles for a compromise-not hopping, not swimming, going close to the ground," explained Jeff quickly.

"Doesn't a 'DNA compromise' go against all known science?" asked Flynn.

"Yeah, but this dimension pulled a cop-out to prevent confusing questions," grumbled Ness.

"Oh, be quiet," scolded Poo as he surveyed the area. "I would assume that we've scoured this block of chimeras."

"Don't use words like 'scoured.' We've cleared a few blocks already, and it seems like we're perfectly capable of handling these beasts. Maybe we should split up. Let's see...four...eight...nine...ten...okay. Two to each group, five groups."

* * *

An hour later, the groups had each cleared two blocks of chimeras. They were plenty strong enough, but there were a LOT of chimeras. Flynn occasionally broke away from the highly capable Poo and surveyed from the air. Soon, each group had cleared three. Fifteen blocks in an hour! That and the three they cleared beforehand made eighteen. Ness knew that the city had twenty-seven blocks and, at the rate they were going, they could reach twenty-five in the next hour and then become two groups of five to clear the other two, clearing the city.

And so another hour passed as they fought, and, as Ness had predicted, they had cleared twenty-five blocks.

"Flynn!" he called to the eagle.

"Eh?" came the response.

"Tell everyone to meet at City Hall!"

("Hey! Come on, get to City Hall! Ness has something to say!") shouted Flynn telepathically. Everyone gathered in front and Ness looked at them meaningfully.

"The city has twenty-seven blocks. We've cleared twenty-five. If we become two groups of five, we can find the last two blocks and clear them. When you've cleared your block, come back here and wait for the other group."

They split up. Ness, Paula, Jeff, Poo, and King to one group, and Lucas, Kumatora, Duster, Boney, and Flynn to the other.

"Jeff, have you fixed your radar?" asked Ness.

"To some degree," said Jeff sadly, pulling out the devastated-looking machine. In case you didn't recall, the ghost of the Escaryuba victim had burst into it, screaming, and severely debilitated it.

"Try it," commanded Ness. Jeff pressed the button and a shrill squeal came from the sonic wave emitter, so to speak. They heard the noise reverbrate off of everything around them and then heard it coming back towards the machine. It abruptly stopped and a map appeared on the screen.

According to the map, they were near the drugstore, facing south, and there were chimeras a few blocks in front of them and to the left. And that's where they went to find them, and they found them there. A battle ensued, with Poo using PK Starstorm and Paula launching volleys of defensive PK Thunder from the back. King used PK Silver to "great effect" (according to Jeff), causing most of the chimeras to become tame or flee. One was pure machine, and as a PK Thunder hit it it simply short-circuited.

* * *

Lucas glanced around.

"Flynn, could you see where the chimeras are?" he asked. Unlike Jeff, he had no device that would give a radar map of the immediate area.

"Sure thing," responded the eagle promptly, and he was off in an instant. Several seconds passed, with Flynn soaring around looking down, and then he shouted in surprise. "Here they are!"

They ran to where he was and skidded to a halt, examining the chimeras from a distance.

"From what I can see, it would be best if we..." whispered Lucas.

He whispered the rest of the plan very quietly, and if I revealed it there wouldn't be any point in reading it.

("Flynn! Use that sickness spell on the biggest chimeras!")

"Natura Pathoges!"

Beams of sickeningly green light struck their targets, which were Cattlesnakes, an Almost-Mecha Lion, and some sort of quadrupedal whale thing.

"I'm kind of surprised I didn't see that beforehand," mumbled Duster to himself as the monster fell.

"Okay! PK Love!" cried Lucas suddenly, startling Duster out of his thoughts. A white hexagon formed in his palm and exploded, sending multiple waves of white energy washing over the chimeras and causing a minor earthquake. Duster flung a number of wall staples that pinned chimeras, and Kumatora's PK Thunder was drawn by the metal and struck every time. This happened twice more, until many chimeras were simply lying stunned in the road.

"So what do we do now?" asked Kumatora. "It seems like all of them are stunned, tame, dead, or sick."

"We go back to the City Hall grounds," said Flynn.

They went to the grounds and saw that the others were already almost there.

"Oh, hallo!" grinned Ness. "I see you finished. It looks like the city's been cleansed of chimeras." He seemed especially cheery at the moment. Was it because his hometown was safe?

"Yep, that's the way it is," squawked Flynn. "Now we have to get to the Nowhere Islands...or at least you all do. I'm stationed here, in THIS time...I can't come with you, but Nathan will be there, and you know him, so..." He gave a halfhearted shrug.

("Is he sad that we have to part?") Poo asked Ness.

("Likely. Anyone of MY charisma would be hard to part from,") boasted Ness.

Same old silly Ness.

Poo chuckled at Ness's response, something that was odd of the prince.

"I should probably help you guys with the portal. Boney, you start, I'm not very good at this, I might release Cthulhu or something..."

Boney gave a short, bursting bark-laugh before beginning to draw runes. Flynn filled in the runes Boney missed or forgot, and Boney did the same for Flynn. Eventually, and a lot later than it would have taken Nathan, a shimmering blue portal appeared.

"Brilliant. Jump in," said Flynn. "I guess this is goodbye, for now." The eagle smiled.

"Goodbye," said Paula. "We'll see you some other time, I'm sure of it."

They leapt into the blue gateway of time and watched as the blue faded into black. Suddenly everything was rainbow, and they had the sensation that they had just been shot out of a gun and were being flung. Various travellers were glimpsed, and some random objects, ranging from crates to exotic fish in tanks. Soon they spotted their destination portal, and they knew it was so because they were headed straight for it.

BOOM!

They shot through it in a hypersonic burst of energy and the rainbow faded into black, to be replaced with blue-then it was like looking through a blue-tinted window, and they saw the field next to Lucas's house, and then they were falling-falling-

"Gotcha!"

They were stopped mid-fall by a magic energy and turned their heads to see a green mohawk over slightly darker seaweed-colored hair. Further inspection revealed that this hair was connected to a head. The face had a signature half-smile on it, and the scar on the cheek was next to where it ended. Piercing grey eyes bore into them.

"Ah, hallo, Nathan," said Ness. "Would you let us down?"

"I'm afraid I won't let you down, but I'll release you from this spell," joked Nathan. Lucas called that sort of joke an "extended pun," where two phrases that were the same were interchanged for comedic value. In this case: let you down-disappoint, etc., let you down-let down from something. (Sorry for the explanation, that sort of joke might be more common in the sequel.

The group tumbled to the ground in one big heap and got to their feet. Duster, with his bizarre bad leg, was up in an instant.

"That leg is creepy," muttered Kumatora, looking at it.

"Eh," responded Duster tonelessly, without looking at her. (In truth, Duster never wore shorts because of a series of nasty scars and the strange angle/deformity of the leg. Also, he didn't have much of a tan because of that leg.)

"I guess you've saved Eagleland, for now. If you hadn't, I have reason to believe that you would still be fighting. I hope it didn't prove too difficult?" inquired Nathan.

"Well, Threed was a bit elaborate, and Onett's machine was easy to find-we had found out where it was before, right before we got sucked into Rycoulth's portal-but there were a lot of chimeras and we had to fight all of those," recited Paula from memory, with a thoughtful expression.

"Interesting. Anything else?"

"We met an eagle named Flynn," added Lucas.

"Flynn!" gasped Nathan. "He may not be as good as me at magic, but he's the greatest explorer-greatest person...bird...whatever-that I've ever met! You should be honored that he joined you!"

"I didn't know that, but I feel a little more honored, I guess," said Duster casually.

"You don't have too many emotions, do you?" asked Kumatora rudely.

"Not at the moment," replied Duster, not meeting her eyes.

Meanwhile, the others were having a more important conversation.

"Did you guys remember the swords?" asked Nathan.

"Completely forgot, actually," admitted Ness, unsheating the gleaming Hydra. It emitted a little ripple of energy, as if expressing distaste at its lack of use. "Sorry, Hydra." He patted the blade and carefully wiped it clean.

"She's a good sword," said Nathan.

"Why are all inanimate objects 'she?'" wondered Paula aloud.

"What is not known cannot affect us," dictated Poo wisely.

"Thanks, Mr. Philosopher," said Ness sarcastically. "Where do we start?"

"We start by getting out of the rain," said Nathan. For it was indeed raining, and very hard at that.

They turned to go to Lucas's house, but were stopped by the sight of a monstrous shape overhead, followed by another. One of them changed direction and plummeted straight down, still making a smooth and slick landing. Automatically, they recognized Arcturus as rain glistened off of his scales. The second shape was also a wyvern, but it was strangely pink and a bit of a better flier than Arcturus. It was even MORE streamlined, if that was possible, although less muscular. This wyvern, they assumed, was female.

"Lynn!" exclaimed Nathan, startled.

"Hello, Nathan," said Lynn calmly. She had dark blue hair that was tied back in a short, spiky ponytail and tied with red. She wore a black t-shirt and a golden cross necklace, contrasting with what Nathan was now wearing (a strangely colored button-up shirt with a red patch and a white shirt underneath, with which he wore the neck somewhat open). Like Nathan, she wore dark jeans, but also black boots. Nathan wore white-and-grey boots, built for a guy and for heavy-duty work. Paula suspected they were steel-toed. Along both arms were slim shields like Nathan's, and she wore a brighter cape (light grey with a white interior). She had no mechanical arm.

"Any news?" asked Nathan.

"No, everything's fine," replied Lynn, frowning.

"With the exception of the Nowhere Islands," muttered Nathan sourly, flipping his wet, drooping mohawk out of his face and drying it with magic (although it was still raining and that had no real effect).

"Well, yeah, with the exception of this place," admitted Lynn.

Suddenly Nathan felt a sword tapping on his shoulder. He turned around and saw an irritated Ness glaring at him.

"We're all sopping wet here. Can you at least make a forcefield and dry us off?"

"Oh! Sure!" said Nathan. A forcefield flared into existence and they were suddenly dry.

"So what do we do now?" Paula asked Ness and Lucas.

"Jeff, do you have a seismograph?" Lucas inquired, tapping Jeff on the shoulder.

"I'm afraid I don't carry those," he responded, adjusting his glasses.

Glasses? thought Ness. Wait a minute...if I've watched Jurassic Park (TM)...and I have...wait, why is there a trademark in my thoughts?

He tapped Nathan on the shoulder.

"Idea! Nathan-conjure a glass! Of water!"

"There's enough water coming out of the sky. Why do you want a glass of water?"

"Because I have an idea."

His idea was to test how much the ground shook to find out the direction of the machine. He would do this by placing the glass on the ground and observing the water's vibrations. If more vibrations were seen in one direction, they would go that way.

"Er...sure..." mumbled Nathan uncertainly. He drew a series of runes. They spun around one another, becoming a blur. He drew a series of smaller runes inside of that, and those spun too. Suddenly a glass materialized, at first emerging as blue energy and then fading into a more corporeal form. Nathan hit that with a levitation spell, and a blob of water appeared from the smaller runes and fell into the glass. He handed it to Ness through the forcefield, with some difficulty.

Ness placed it on the ground and watched.

It was vibrating. He moved it outwards slightly. It vibrated less. He moved it in a circle, determining the point of highest vibration.

"This way, guys," he said, beckoning to them.

"What about it?" asked Kumatora, confused.

"We're going to find out where the machine is. It's this way."

"Towards the woods?"

"Yeah, I guess."

They walked slowly, hoping to feel more vibrations. And they did. It vibrated more and more, until they were pretty deep into the woods. Ness, who was thirsty, drank the water, and then glanced down.

"This might be it. Here, I drank the water, but I have an idea on how to get it back."

He placed the glass outside of the forcefield and it filled quickly from the rain. He took it back inside and observed it vibrating. He moved it further in every direction and determined that the machine was several yards away, north. They headed that way, then called Nathan using telepathy. He warped to them in a flash of bluish energy and looked down.

"Here?" he asked, incredulous.

"Yup," grinned Ness, pleased with himself.

Nathan performed the same spell that Flynn had, and the earth burst free from the rest of it, revealing a machine. He looked at Ness and Lucas.

"Wanna?"

"Hell yeah!" shouted Ness, and Lucas followed. The three sprung over the edge of the pit and plunged straight down towards the machine, with Hydra, Scylla, and the blade of Navenstrae flashing and glowing blindingly with anticipation and power.

"PK Burst!"

"PK Crescent!"

"Navenstrae Cretaille!"

There was a colossal explosion and the rest of the group rushed to the edge of the pit, only to see the trio flying backwards out of it. They stepped back and allowed Ness, Lucas, and Nathan room to land.

"That was pretty epic," laughed Ness.

"Agreed," said Lucas, and they all laughed.

"Where do you think the next one is?" asked Nathan.

"Seeing as there are still storm clouds over Lucas's house," returned Kumatora, "I think it might be that way."

"The way we're facing?" said Duster.

"That way, yeah," assured Kumatora.

"Sounds logical enough," remarked Lynn, who hadn't left when they had went off to destroy the machine.

"Who are you, anyway?" asked Jeff rather bluntly. Jeff, who was short and a year younger than Ness, looked rather silly next to Lynn.

"Member of the Order," replied Lynn airily. "About in the middle. Nathan here is-"

"Second-in-command, we know. Flynn told us," interjected Paula. "Wonder who's third?"

"My friend Isaac," said Nathan. "You haven't met him yet. I don't think you will for a while, he's somewhere in-between."

"Wait. In-between what?" said Ness.

"Where are we, and where were you?"

"The Nowhere Islands and Eagleland...he's between them? But it's the same place...just...different geography. Unless...you mean...you can't..."

"Yep. He's in-between times. Fifty years ago from here, and fifty years in the future from Eagleland. Interesting, don't you think?"

"If you could call being in-between times interesting," said Paula.

"Say, you all haven't been to the past BEFORE Eagleland, have you?" inquired Nathan, cocking his head and aquiring a thoughtful expression.

"Of course not," answered Paula.

"Guys!" called Kumatora. "Are we moving or what?" She was some thirty meters ahead of them, looking back. Duster frowned.

"She has a point. We should get moving if we know where the machine is. We can talk later."

Suddenly, a bright object streaked across the sky and into the storm cloud, vanishing. Nathan whipped out Navenstrae and fired a bright bolt of energy. It shot off and exploded, causing a sort of napalm effect. A red fireball appeared, but also a beam of white light. This beam fired from the red fireball and pulled something big out of the woods. Ness had a slight suspicion that it might be the machine-but that was preposterous.

Or was it?

"Arcturus! We have to get to the sky!" shouted Ness.

("What for?") asked the bewildered wyvern.

"No time to explain, just fly that way!" He sprinted to Arcturus, climbed on his back, and was off before anyone could blink twice.

"He didn't really ask, but alright," said Nathan. "I trust him enough, he's flown Arcturus before."

* * *

Arcturus skyrocketed before diving slightly. Ness unsheathed Hydra and told Arcturus to dive further, which he did. They were now level with the smoke from the fireball.

"PK Crescent!" cried Ness triumphantly. The bolt of energy cut through the air and flew off. He tried again, and aimed in all different directions, attempting to hit what he knew was there.

* * *

"What is he doing?" asked Lynn.

"Ness can be strange sometimes," muttered Paula.

"I think he's on to something, actually," commented Duster. "Look-since when do weird objects fly through the air? That HAD to have been an Escaryuba ship! It was probably elevating the machine from that spot so it wouldn't be found underground. If you hadn't done that, Nathan, we would be clueless as to where the rest were. Unless they've dispatched multiple ships...but if that's true, there won't be any tactile clues and we'd have to search harder."

As he said this, a bright silver object came down out of the sky.

And this time, Jeff recognized the symbol on it. It matched the symbol on the glaive that had narrowly missed Duster back in Winters, the peculiar E with the banana.

"NATHAN! THAT'S AN ESCARYUBA SHIP!" he shouted, losing his head completely and taking out his bazooka. Taking careful aim, he fired several rockets. One malfunctioned and slowed, causing another to crash into it. They both exploded, damaging the oncoming ship enough for Nathan to take aim and fire a beam from Navenstrae. Just then, Paula (who was watching Ness along with Poo) cried out in surprise.

"He hit something!" she cried.

They turned around, and sure enough, there was a giant orange fireball sweeping towards them. Lynn could just barely make out Hydra's glow, and she said that it was moving away from the fireball. Soon, Arcturus came into view, and then the pair landed triumphantly on the wet grass.

"A machine," gasped Ness. "It was-"

("In the sky!") finished Arcturus.

"Duster, it looks like you were right," said Nathan. "Kumatora, come this way. Everyone else-follow. We're going into the village. I have an idea, and it involves all of us."

* * *

PLEASE REVIEW! I could really use some feedback!

Longest chapter in a while, huh? I kinda like how it came out. They're finally getting to the bottom of things, and next chapter Nathan's plan is unveiled. (Clearly.)

Anyway...not too many notes here.

You WILL see Isaac in the sequel, I can gurantee that. Maria's return is explained (if you recall, Ness, Lucas, and co. have no clue that Maria had died) and I'm probably going to give Poo more lines. Scaraba will also be featured!

Chapter 22 is when this is ending. It's for sure.

So...bye for now! Don't forget to read "What's the Menu?", a short story by me. Also in the Earthbound section. Heh, I said to read THIS in THAT story.

And don't worry about the end, there will always be more! (If you really want more, I can turn this into a more-than-three-part thing...)

Because in the world of fanfics, there is never truly an end.

Click this button

If you have something to say about this story.


	20. The Beginning of The End

Chapter 20: The Beginning of the End

Pretty simple plotline this chapter.

Wow, I can't believe my fic is almost over! Chapter 20 already! Thanks to everyone who reviewed (even on external sites) this story for your encouragement!

Read and review!

* * *

They paused in the main room of Lucas's house. A fireplace crackled in one spot, across from the kitchen. A sofa with a cream-coloured mat in front of it lay against the wall.

"No time to wait, we've gotta talk," said Nathan hurriedly. They rushed upstairs and into the spare room, slamming the door. A confused Flint stared after them.

"What's the deal with your plan?" asked Paula.

"Plan, plan, what plan? Oh, yeah!" exclaimed Nathan, forgetting entirely about his ideas. "The plan-pretty obvious main goal, destroy the machines. But how are we supposed to do that when the Escaryuba are moving them as we speak?"

"Go out there and fight them?" suggested Ness.

"That might work, but we need a 'will' and not a 'might,'" mused Nathan, more to himself than Ness. He gazed at the ceiling for a minute before Duster tapped him on the shoulder. He jumped. "So our plan is to-"

"There won't BE a plan!" hissed a catlike creature as it smashed through the wall.

And it was then that they realized who it was; and that they had to deal with the atrocity at hand before dealing with...numerous smaller atrocities in the form of curved yellow fruit. A second creature jumped through the hole created by the first creature and the pair advanced.

Gygath and Rycoulth had returned for their revenge.

* * *

Meanwhile, a green wyvern with a pink bow on its head was lounging around. The thirteen-year-old girl snoozing next to it was alarmed by a sudden sonicboom that hit the pair, causing them to fly up into the air and fall back down, hard.

"What was that about, huh, Lacey?" asked the girl.

("I wouldn't know,") responded Lacey as she glanced around, bemused.

As the girl looked around, she noticed that there were now fruits hanging from the trees she had fallen asleep under.

"That's odd, I could have sworn these weren't fruit trees..." she muttered. She picked one and was about to eat it when an enormous steely grey wyvern slammed into the ground next to her. A man-incidentally, the same one who had came when Nathan had called for an Order member-leapt from the wyvern's back and knocked the fruit out of the girl's hands. He stomped hard on it and it squealed, a face appearing suddenly. The girl was startled.

"Nathan was right," she murmured. "Thanks, Chris."

"Not a problem," said Chris. He was only about 25, and the Order tattoo was visible on the back of his hand.

"Incidentally...was that an...Escaryuba?" She struggled to pronounce the word.

"Yes, it was," replied Chris. The grey wyvern snarled angrily at the mention of the aliens. "Calm down, Al. We'll take care of this." Then he turned to the girl. "I was on my way to investigate the sudden disappearance of the machines. Want to come?"

"Sure. I don't have anything better to do," shrugged the girl.

"Right, then. Come on, Al, Natalie, Lacey."

Nathan's sister and her wyvern flew off alongside Chris and Al the grey wyvern.

* * *

Rycoulth advanced first. Ness gave a menacing thrust at him, Hydra's silver blade glowing, and he dodged it, hissing softly. Lucas swung at him, and he jumped back-right into Hydra.

"You jumped into a sword!" hissed Gygath as he fired off a crackling PSI Thunder. It almost hit Jeff, but at the last second it bounced off. Ness vaguely remembered the PSI Counter-shield thing he had invented, but hadn't thought much about its potential for non-PSI-user protection. Assuming, of course, that Nathan hadn't intervened, although he had not moved an inch since Rycoulth's advance.

"At least I can take it!" snarled the tentacled monstrosity as a shimmering temporary blade made of dark energy materialized in his hand. A similar one appeared for Gygath, who clutched it evilly.

"Unfortunately for you..." began Ness, finishing his sentence by thrusting Hydra at the dark blade. As the glowing silver sword came closer to the darkness, the amount of light it emitted changed rapidly. It shone brighter and brighter until there appeared to be a blinding silver sun in the room; the dark blade dissipated on contact with the light and Gygath would have been skewered if not for the quickly created shield that appeared moments before impact. As a result, the shield shattered and Hydra lost most of its force. It lightly scratched Gygath, but it was of no concern.

"YOU WILL PAY!" bellowed Gygath, and he forgot that he was incapable of a proper physical attack and charged. Rycoulth saw this and created a dark spear in Gygath's hand. He was charging for the startled Ness, and the faster-reacting Lucas leapt in from the side and broke the spear with a crushing blow from Scylla (at the same time creating a shining light like that of Hydra's a minute ago). Just then, the twin blades shone like suns again and almost leapt from their owner's hands. This time, the pair kept control over the blades and held them both up (although it was really involuntary; the blades were rising of their own accord).

BOOM!

A sonicboom fired through the house and almost created a crippling earthquake, with the epicenter located directly underneath the house, but Nathan encased the stray energy in a forcefield and then did a very strange thing. Shrinking the forcefield and containing the energy in a very tiny space, he placed it in a reinforced jar. The energy turned blue and anyone who looked would see it rocketing around inside. But nobody noticed this, and he quietly shrunk and pocketed the jar.

Accompanying the sonicboom was a radiant shine emanating from the twin blades, and then Ness and Lucas crossed them. As they then pulled them back, a burst of swirling energy erupted into the room. It grew and stayed, and suddenly beams of light shot from the two swords into the heart of the energy. The light appeared to be fueling the energy, as it swirled faster and grew larger and more visible, until it was solid.

"Solid?" wondered Paula. Nobody was moving, it was just Ness and Lucas now. Even Gygath and Rycoulth had stopped to watch (although they knew they were probably going to be blasted into oblivion in a minute). Meanwhile, Nathan quietly created runes that swirled and stayed, floating around his head like bizzare birds.

"Not exactly," answered Jeff in a whisper. "You have heard of ghosts-souls (which are really vibrating energy) that are apparently earthbound." (I mentioned the fanfic's base, whoops...) "Well, if they obtain enough energy, they can move to OUR vibrational plane and be seen by us, even as translucent or-in rare cases with highly charged spirits-opaque forms that are occasionally of loved ones we have lost."

Paula nodded. "Yeah, I know. What about them?"

"If they have enough energy, they can become opaque, as I just said. Mostly they are translucent, but lots of energy can create the appearance of solidity. It's not solid, just opaque."

"Oh." She looked a little bewildered at this sudden explanation.

Meanwhile, Ness and Lucas were attempting to keep the blades still as they ceaselessly fired beams of light into the epicenter of the energy-which had taken the form of a whirling twister.

"It's a Light Twister!" shouted Nathan. "It's pretty rare, but it happens sometimes with channeling or magical items!"

"How do you know!" cried Lucas over the roaring noise of the twister and the clattering of the house and objects around them.

"Navenstrae does it sometimes, although it's never as powerful as this one!"

Ness and Lucas held their ground, great-grandfather from Eagleland and great-grandson from the Nowhere Islands. They could tell the twister was almost fully formed, and that it was also about to unleash a lot of energy. They were going to have to endure it.

Only a few more seconds...

* * *

While all this was happening, Natalie and Chris (and the accompanying wyverns) were in the mountains. They were surveying the area near Alec's restored house (it had been struck by lightning) and frowning, because there was a big fat hole in the side of one mountain. It was smoking slightly and the area around it looked very windblown.

The air above the islands had suddenly cleared, creating the appearance (to the Order of the Dragon, at least) that the Escaryuban machines were gone.

"What do you think happened?" asked Natalie.

"There was a machine here, that's for sure," muttered Chris, examining the area. "And I get the feeling it's not gone."

("Why is all the foliage windblown?") said Lacey, glancing around.

("I'll fly around and see if I can get a wider look at the area. I can see if it was just wind...or something blew these stalks over in just this area...") growled Al.

The grey wyvern shot off into the sky and was able to get a good look at the area. Just then he flew into a layer of clouds and sensed a disturbance in the air. He swerved rapidly to the side and dodged a crackling ball of electricity in a black cloud.

("Oh, man, this isn't too good...the storm is coming back...") Al mumbled to himself. Glancing upwards, his jaw dropped and a blast of white flame shot out. (A wyvern's color determines the color of its fire. The fire is the color of the wyvern's scales, except for green wyverns. This rare type breathes a peculiar poison that appears to be a floating liquid. AN: Sorry for not explaining this earlier, it's not a very important fact. Luckily wyverns don't do too much fire-breathing in this story and no color was ever mentioned if they did. Wyverns ARE a form of dragon, and breathe fire for the most part!)

Directly above him was a machine.

It was floating and had apparently had just been activated, for it was making a loud noise that was blocked by the soft cloud cover. Al dived back down through the stormclouds and into the rain and semidarkness, which (according to Chris) had just come on out of the blue.

("THERE'S A MACHINE UP THERE!") roared Al loudly.

"Relax. Natalie, can I borrow the Ice Dagger for a minute?" requested Chris.

"Sure," said Natalie, handing him a rather long dagger encased in ice and cold vapor. Chris, riding Al, quickly skyrocketed and was gone above the clouds. Wanting a closer look, Natalie and Lacey (a green wyvern) flew up after him.

It was odd above the clouds, to say the least. While it was storming fiercely below the clouds, a half-second flight through the clouds changed the atmosphere completely. The four of them could SEE the waves of darkness radiating so relentlessly from the machine. Chris and Al flew right at the machine, and Al breathed white flame. It scorched the machine badly, creating a weak point. As the small repair cells and microbots attempted to repair the weak area, Chris took advantage of the weak spot and drove the Ice Dagger into the machine.

There was a small sputtering spark, and Al quickly streaked away from the machine, saving himself and Chris as the pierced fuel tank was hit by a spark.

The entire flying mess went up in flames and the four catapulted back to the mountains. The storm quickly cleared and they all stood for a moment, panting.

"Brilliant. So we know what happened to the machines, let's report it to the Order. You oughta consider joining, you're pretty good with magic and you have a wyvern..." suggested Chris.

"I've thought about it," said Natalie. "My brother thinks I'm immature, and I've been trying hard not to be. And I believe it's working. I'm starting to realize that responsibility is a good thing-except in large doses. Then it just hurts."

She and Chris chuckled and then flew off to the Order headquarters, circa 2100 (location undisclosed for privacy reasons).

* * *

BOOM!

The twister burst into existence after those few crucial seconds. It tore through Rycoulth and Gygath, sending them flying. Moments before, Nathan had drawn a final rune and sent it up with those around his head. They had flown off somewhere and vanished.

And as Rycoulth and Gygath were thrown through the house's walls, bruised, beaten, and damaged, they were drawn into the orbit of an orange portal. They were sucked into it, and in a flash everything vanished.

"That takes care of that," said Nathan, brushing his hands together and smiling in a satisfied manner.

Just then, a young couple was taking a stroll through the woods. They had picked a pair of bananas and were walking towards Lucas' house, about to eat them. Luckily Ness glanced through the hole and spotted the two bananas; in his current state he was about to kill anything that resembled a banana. (That includes things I'm not going to mention. O.o) That being the case, he leapt through the hole in the wall and skewered the banana the guy was holding using Hydra. It squealed and shriveled up.

Next, he did a backflip and a handspring, also spearing the Escaryuba the woman was holding.

"Those weren't bananas. They were ALIENS!" he shouted, wiping down Hydra's blade with a nearby leaf.

"Are you insane?" asked the guy.

"He's perfectly sane, that's called an Escaryuba," said Duster calmly, following Ness's path out of the hole and across the field. He limped over to them and nudged the dead alien with his foot. "It has a face, see?"

"Oh my..." gasped the woman. "It does."

A second young couple, holding a pair of half-eaten bananas, was walking towards them from the opposite side of the house.

"NOOOOOO!" screamed Ness. "YOU ATE THEM!"

The bemused couple frowned.

Paula came running across the field, and Ness was relieved to see her. He put his arm around her shoulders and gestured towards the second couple.

"They ate the Escaryuba..." muttered Ness.

"ARE YOU NUTS!" shouted Paula. "You just...just...ate aliens! Live ones!"

"It's true..." mumbled the first couple. Duster nodded.

"Did all of you get out of the mental hospital?" asked the woman.

"No, we're all perfectly sane. Trust us," assured Ness. Just then, Lucas walked up alongside them and had the same reaction.

"What's wrong with bananas?" asked the guy.

"They're aliens, smart guy," said Kumatora, who had evidently followed Lucas.

"Impossible. Aliens don't exist."

"Don't exist, huh? Telling me we've fought our way through aliens, zombies, insane animals, brainwashed people, robots, and chimeras only to hear it didn't actually happen?" snapped Ness. The scar the Escaryuba had given him so long ago in Winters was easily visible.

"Uh."

A crazed and frenzied Nathan riding Arcturus slammed into the ground near them just then, and he hit the couple with a spell. It created a sort of X-Ray effect, and they could see inside of them. And what was seen was...unpleasant.

"There's nothing I can do now, just caution everyone never to eat a banana without breaking it in half first to make sure it's not an Escaryuba," fretted Nathan, who seemed frantic.

"What's the deal?" asked Paula.

"Ever seen Alien? The alien is *ulp* endoparasitic..." returned Nathan.

"We saw that during summer break right after we defeated Giygas, remember, Paula? Before we went on the hike?" said Ness suddenly, perking up. "We saw it with Jeff."

"Oh!" exclaimed Paula. "Yeah...it lives IN the victim...creepy." She shuddered. "That part makes me sick.

"Eating an Escaryuba usually leads to death in a...similar manner," finished Nathan reluctantly.

Indeed, a peel-less Escaryuba-like form was visible in the stomachs of both.

"Uh-oh. You're not telling me..." said Ness.

"I am telling you."

"They're gonna die?"

"They're gonna die."

As they watched in horrifying disgust, the Escaryuba slithered around inside of the bodies, apparently taking bites out of the flesh. It was like watching a snake. They curled up in the stomach, in a fetal position.

"I can cut it short and painless, if you want," said Nathan. "Knock you out so you don't feel it."

"No," said the bewildered woman.

"Well...nice knowing you," said Nathan resolutely. He stood next to Duster, watching.

"I feel kinda squirmy inside..." muttered the guy.

"Feels like there's something in my stomach," commented the woman.

Nathan froze.

"Ejevom!" he shouted. The woman promptly threw up a slimy, squealing banana-like creature.

"What the hell...is that a LARVA!" cried Kumatora.

The guy threw up too, probably from the smell and parasitic monster. But no alien came out of him, and a second later...well, I don't want to describe it, but...

Screaming and gurgling, he collapsed, a monster bursting from his flesh and squealing triumphantly. It slithered away into the woods, where it was promptly trod on by a fox and killed.

"Oh...my..." mumbled Paula.

* * *

After that horrifying incident, the group sprinted through the village, determined to stop the mad evil created by the aliens. Now it was all down to them and the Order. They HAD to stop the murders and torture.

"So what are we supposed to be doing!" panted Jeff.

"Hunting down the machines, of course," said Duster.

A pink wyvern flew overhead and dove, spiraling. Moments later, Lynn climbed off of its back and ran to them.

"Nathan! Listen-the Escaryuba have moved the machines into the sky! They don't know that WE know yet, but they will soon, and if we don't act fast these machines could be moved and we'd have NO clue at all!" she panted.

"In the sky! Great...how are we supposed to get up there?" fumed Nathan.

("Forgetting your trusty partner?") asked Arcturus.

* * *

It was a quick mount, where half of the group rode Arcturus and the other half (plus Lynn) rode the pink wyvern. Nathan, whose wings made Lynn rather uncomfortable, would fly alongside them.

"T minus seven seconds, T minus six seconds, T minus five seconds, T minus four seconds, T minus three seconds, T minus two seconds, T minus one second...TAKEOFF!" counted Jeff.

The two wyverns flew off into the sky and circled above the clouds. Then they flew off towards the dark areas in the sky. It was admittedly easier to find machines now, since they were in the sky-just harder to access them.

"Right-we have to get over there, to the darkness. See if you can find the machine-it's usually in the center of the darkness!" shouted Nathan. "If you do, destroy it! We have the right weapons! Lynn has that lightning sword, I have Navenstrae, and Ness and Lucas have Hydra and Scylla (respectively)!"

They shot off in various directions and searched around. Jeff even used the sonar device, but to no avail. (It was actually pretty invulnerable to forcefields, because when the waves returned it would still show that something was there.)

"I have a suggestion," said Poo. "What if we were to fly to the ground and check underground? I have a feeling that this particular machine-and possibly others-is underground."

"The Escaryuba MAY have figured out that the Order figured out-or, rather, that Chris and Nathan's sister Natalie figured out-that the machines are floating. And now they've moved some underground to decieve the Order...unfortunately for the Escaryuba, it's pretty hard to decieve the Order...and associates," added Lynn.

"In all honesty, it's worth a try," admitted Kumatora.

The pink wyvern dove, and Ness (riding Arcturus with Jeff, Duster, King, and Boney) led Arcturus after them. Nathan kept searching the sky.

("It's really shaky here!") exclaimed Arcturus.

"I think we landed right on top of it," said Paula.

"We may have," agreed Duster. "I think I'm being shaken out of my shoes..."

He did indeed appear to be rising out of his work boots.

"Move off to the side, then, and I'll get rid of whatever's covering it," said Lynn. They obeyed and she tore the ground apart with a spell...revealing...

"Nothing but the entrance to a cave," said Ness. Then he noticed that, without wind, the rain moved sideways if the floating clump of dirt Lynn had moved sideways. It slowed if the clump moved upwards and accelerated if it moved downwards. "Wait...the machine is in that clump of dirt!"

"Really..." mumbled Lynn. "Interesting." She blasted the dirt apart and found solid rock. Blasting that apart, she found...

("A machine...") growled King and Boney. Then, only King: ("PK SILVER!")

Piercing silver light slammed into the machine and punctured a fair amount of holes in the machine.

("Inferna Spherica!") cried Boney. A fireball flew from his paws and slammed into the machine. The fire went THROUGH the holes created by PK Silver and there was a tremendous explosion.

Another machine down and gone.

"What about these caverns? If they placed one machine in there, there are BOUND to be more," said Duster.

"That's an idea," nodded Lynn.

"A weird one, but an idea," added Kumatora.

"We might be able to destroy a lot of machines if we go in there. They must have placed them in there, I KNOW it...taking them out of the sky and putting it in an inaccessible cave...that's just like them," said Ness.

"All in favor?" polled Jeff loudly.

"I," rang out ten voices. Wait-ten? Oh, Nathan had landed behind them. That explained it.

"It's unanimous, then. We have agreed to search these caverns for more machines. It seems ridiculous, but since they ARE underground, and caves are as well, it makes more sense than at first thought."

"Cut short, we're going into a bunch of caves to look for machines," said Nathan, amused.

"Er, yeah," said Jeff hurriedly.

Taking a deep breath, Ness leapt down into the hole and to the entrance of the cave. Unsheathing Hydra, he grinned and looked up.

"Come on, then."

And by the sword's light, he walked into the pitch-black cave.

* * *

PLEASE REVIEW! I could use some feedback on this story, and nobody's reviewed it since chapter fifteen. Have I been writing that badly, or are you guys tired of this fic?

HOLY SHIZZ! PKLoveOmega reviewed this story nine-ten times, thanks, now it looks like multiple people reviewed (up to 17 now!)

Oh, yes, sorry for the late upload time. I was having trouble getting it to upload properly. I'm writing like mad again after a couple of weeks, expect chapter 22 and a sequel very soon!

Er...have some more trivia.

-I was originally going to have the machines use batteries, but that's too eco-friendly for the evil Escaryuba who want to kill all humans and inhabit Earth for themselves.

-I typed Kumatora's name "Limatora" so many times when writing this chapter I almost quit writing for the day. And it was in the same sentence, too.

-Off-topic: I said the word "sentence" like "sentencee" for some reason the other day...

-Back in Chapter Seven, I accidentally forgot the word "of" in a sentence and it sounded kind of weird...

-Everyone's back in their normal clothes.

-I finished writing this chapter at 8:57 AM, December 24th, 2010. I am writing this sentence at 9:02 AM, 24-12-10 (or 12-24-10, whatever you prefer).

-Even though I'm American, I still write words like "grey" and "colour"...which confuses me. And I don't like being confused

-Remember: Lynn has a lightning sword, Natalie has the Ice Dagger, and Chris is just Chris. I think you've remembered Hydra, Scylla, and Navenstrae by now.

The sequel is probably going to come out sometime in February of 2011, so be sure to read the last two chapters. 22 is going to be insanely long, because...er...I can't tell. Spoilers, ya know?

If you really want to know, PM me about it and I'll tell you a little bit.

If you're the kind of person who enjoys spoiling things for themselves, like looking at their own Christmas presents before they're been wrapped. ¬_¬

That's right. I see what you did there.

Duster: The next chapter coming anytime soon?

Me: I guess so, I got over that writer's block I had for a week or two and now I'm writing like a madman.

Duster: Ehh, what?

Me: Eh.

REMEMBER TO REVIEW! REALLY!

Next Chapter: Into the Caverns!


	21. Into The Caverns

Chapter 21: Into the Caverns

And so it goes.

Our heroes have bravely destroyed machines as well as Rycoulth and Gygath (not the end of them, though...) and found out about the Escaryuba's machine-moving tactics. After moving the machines into the sky, the Order found out about the ground-to-sky switching tactics, and the Escaryuba realised that the Order knew about the moved machines.

So they launched an emergency switching and put all of the machines into an extensive cavern system underneath the Nowhere Islands.

The result?

Our heroes are heading into these dark caverns to destroy the machines and take the semifinal leap to save the world.

Read and review!

* * *

"Uhm...is this really safe, though?" asked Lucas, unsure of what to do.

"Of course," snapped Kumatora, who, along with Duster, Nathan, and Lynn, leapt down after Ness (who was actually waiting for them just inside the mouth of the cavern).

"Might as well," mused Lucas quietly, before jumping in with Scylla.

The rest followed into the darkness. It was a quiet walk for a while, with a pair of swords, Navenstrae, the lightning sword Lynn carried, and the PK Fire carried in jars by Paula and Kumatora. It seemed to be raining even down here, despite the fact that it was underground. They trudged through several inches of water on their way to the next machine, which was found shortly and promptly destroyed.

Just then the world faded for Ness.

* * *

An odd noise permeated the dark air in the ship. It was the electronic noise of a door sliding open, and a general walked through.

"Greetings, General Escheb. The news?" asked the dark figure in the peculiar chair that was leaning against the opposite wall.

"Yes, Leader. The Order has found out our cave-switching plan, and we are unable to retrieve the machines! They are all doomed!" fretted Escheb.

In a very calm manner, the leader picked up a drink that was lying on the arm of the chair and took a long, slow sip.

"Send troops into the caverns. Equip them as you wish. Next, take the little surprise SOMEBODY"-at this the leader glanced at a dark cage with a motionless form inside of it, next to his chair-"conveniently neglected to activate in Onett. Take the warp gate exactly one hundred years back. Retrieve the surprise and then blast a hole in the ground when you return. Enter the caverns and send the surprise the opposite way that the troops are heading. The troops will meet our friends from the back, and as they run they will encounter the surprise."

"Yes, Leader," nodded Escheb.

"Good. Now do as I say."

"YOU'LL NEVER WIN!" screamed a voice from the left of the chair. The form inside of the cage had spoken. The cage had a forcefield, and over it hung a wooden sign: TraItRR, it read. The sign-maker never could spell.

"Oh, yes we will," chucked the leader. "And when we do, I will attend to you."

"THE ORDER WILL ALWAYS WIN!" shouted the Escaryuba.

"DO NOT MENTION THAT HATED NAME!" roared the leader.

"HYPOCRITE! ESCHEB JUST SAID IT!"

"BUT HE IS A GENERAL, AND IS REPORTING THE SITUATION! THE NAME IS NOT TO BE MENTIONED OTHERWISE!"

"YOU JUST MADE THAT UP!"

"AND WHAT I MAKE UP IS LAW!"

Escheb shifted uncomfortably, and when the leader dismissed him he hurried away and whimpered quietly to himself.

The world faded and Ness snapped back to the present in a flash.

* * *

"The Escaryuba! Sending troops down here! The Order Escaryuba-he's been discovered, and he's trapped in a cage! Then some big "surprise" is going to come down here, and we'll run right into it!" shouted Ness suddenly.

"HUNH!" asked Duster.

"We're in danger, that's what he means. Have another vision?" added Paula.

"Yeah, yeah." Ness exhaled, out of breath from his sudden outburst. "We've gotta do something."

BRIRRR!

The evident spaceship noise was easily audible over their heads.

"We've gotta move. Escaryuba will be coming up behind us," commanded Nathan.

"What will we do to STOP them?" asked Kumatora.

"Set a trap," smiled Nathan mischeviously.

Nathan's idea of a trap? Magic spells were set up left and right, creating fireball traps, arrow traps, pitfalls, cage traps, and traps containing several unnamed monsters each. Nathan had conjured these, not mentioning anything about them until they actually saw a trap being made.

"Y'see, these creatures were conjured from the underworld...I know I'm not really supposed to mess with this stuff, but we're underground in a cave full of hell machines and it seemed appropriate..." he trailed off, faltering under Lynn's stern gaze.

Thankfully (but not for the Escaryuba) these traps were not removed.

Several minutes passed before they heard voices speaking in an alien tongue.

"Ochned va oyve, na ocht det herr van quer daiq et vous err hescque non pour herr ne oy baxzk...dat ouq quen?" they heard.

"I dunno what that means, but it's not gonna matter in a minute," said Duster. Kumatora grinned.

Surely enough, they heard a noise like...well, arrows being fired, and multiple gurgling screams were heard.

"DET OCHT HERR! OYE NA DOCHT!" screamed a voice, and faster pattering was heard. Then-

"BLEEEECH!"

There was sizzling and light from further down.

Next up, the pitfall.

As they watched, one stepped on it and fell right through. The rest avoided it as his screams echoed through the cavern. The cage trap was boring, with yelling and a release, but the creature trap quickly worked until the creatures were slain.

"Here they come..." muttered Nathan through gritted teeth.

("INFERNA SPHERICA!") howled Boney as he leapt out into the path of the aliens. The fire burned and blinded them, and Lucas backed up his faithful pet with three PK Crescents and then PK Love Omega.

Ness, seeing they were the only two fighting, sprung out and hacked away at nearby aliens before unleashing a large PK Crescent. Then he roared:

"PK ROCKIN' Ç!"

The second time he shouted the words he felt more confident, and as he strummed the guitar made of energy light played and danced madly, dazzling and injuring the aliens. Then the pair of small explosions came, followed by a napalm-burst and finally the big bang. Then came the vortex that sucked up that light and energy before exploding forcefully.

Then it happened again.

The free-floating energy coursed through him and around him, like a hurricane. He levitated above the Escaryuba and there was a colossal burst of energy. Many aliens were killed or knocked cold by the blast, and the others leapt into their group and began firing. He saw Paula being hit and burned, and Duster being stabbed by a glaive and then electrocuted.

All of a sudden Nathan appeared from seemingly nowhere, with seven hellbeasts at his sides and one in front.

"CHARGE!" he roared as he unleashed a healing blast from Navenstrae and aided Paula and Duster.

"I was wondering where you went!" grunted Lynn as she deflected a laser with her sword and two hellbeasts charged past her, mauling the Escaryuba attacking Paula as others defended Duster and Jeff. Kumatora unleashed a wave of PSI Fire, and Lucas backed it up with yet another PK Crescent. Hydra saw more slashing action, impaling Escaryuba like an extension of Ness' arm.

A sharp, silver, PSI-channeling slashing deadly extension. But an extension.

Nathan's mechanical left arm was blocking the direct charge fighters that came with the laser-wielders, and as his arm hit them from the air Duster began to wonder if it was preprogrammed. He had no more time to ponder this, because he was forced to perform a tornado kick and knock out aliens around him.

And everywhere it was chaos, with hellbeasts a-mauling and fire everywhere, and dead bodies, and free-floating energy and blood and lasers and magic and electricity, and they did not know how long that section of the battle lasted, wondering if it was still today or maybe tomorrow, or possibly even next week. It seemed like the forces of the Escaryuba were endless, streaming into the caverns like nothing else.

Finally, as they managed to drive the Escaryuba back, there was a deep rumbling and a faint roaring noise.

"SHOOT! WE FORGOT ABOUT THAT 'SURPRISE' THING!" cried Ness. He unleashed a PK Rockin' Beta and blasted the Escaryuba in front of him, and King backed him up with a swift PK Silver that appeared in the form of a silver tidal wave. The water running in a shallow but wide river on either side of the tunnel was beginning to erode the floor and widen, and they had to get out of there fast.

Unfortunately, as they turned around to get going and find the next machine, a colossal shadow appeared and...something...came out from around the bend.

It featured three horns on the front and an armored back body, with spikes on its tail and spine. It also had large, scaly wings, and thick claws that looked more than capable of ripping someone's guts out with one swipe. It looked like a sabre-toothed cat, a triceratops, an ankylosaurus, and numerous other things all pieced together. It was the ultimate, cobbled-together, biological, prehistoric chimera, and it was about to attack them.

* * *

Meanwhile, Natalie was taking yet another nap under a tree, leaning against Lacey, when Chris flew overhead, riding Al and leading a small party of Order members.

The whooshing of wings woke her up, and she roused Lacey. Frowning, the green wyvern glanced around. ("I didn't see any reason to wake up,") she muttered.

"That doesn't matter," snapped Natalie, and they flew off after the Order members, unseen and unheard.

Well, at least until one of the Order members checked back. "Oh, hello, Natalie," she greeted. A guy in front of her glanced back. (AN: In case you haven't realized, all Order members have wyverns. They even have hatcheries. You'll learn more about the Order in the sequel.) Chris, at the head of the party, also glanced back.

"Natalie! Glad to see you," called Chris.

"What's going on?" asked Natalie loudly, over the wind.

"We're going to investigate some unusual seismic activity," he responded. Suddenly there was a shockwave that ripped through the air, disturbing even the dragons, and the girl who had greeted Natalie gasped.

"Look at the size of that crater!" she cried, and Al, seeing reason to investigate, flew down. The rest of the Order members and Natalie followed, thinking Chris wanted to investigate. As Al flew closer, however, Chris really DID want to investigate, and the group landed at the crater.

"Oh my God...look at this...think this has something to do with it?" asked a guy, poking at the ground with the double-ended spear-harpoon he carried.

"I dunno, Jack," said Chris. "Only one way to find out."

"You suggesting we go down there?" returned Jack.

"That is exactly what I was suggesting. Come! We enter!"

And the Order members charged into the cave with their wyverns.

* * *

Ness thrusted Hydra at the beast, driving the blade into a tender joint. He unleashed a PK Burst (hurting the beast greatly, I must say) and leapt backwards as the monster took a colossal swipe at him with its huge, sharp claws. Poo backed him up and lunged with the Sword of Kings.

"HEY! OVER HERE, YA GREAT EEJIT!" called Nathan. "THAT'S RIGHT! I'M GOING TO SEND YOU BACK TO HELL WHERE YOU BELONG!"

The monster was angered by this taunt. It twitched in rage and threw itself at Nathan, who simply teleported out of its way and it smashed into the rock wall.

"NATHAN!" called a faint voice, a girl's. Nathan recognized it as his sister's, and in a second the entire Order party was running up the tunnel towards them. They faltered when they saw the beast, but Jack quickly fired the harpoon end of his spear and hit one of its great paws dead-center. As it recoiled in pain, the harpoon was withdrawn and the barbed edges, like a stingray's tail, caused more blood. Given renewed hope by this, the group charged forwards. Duster slammed into it and kicked its nose in, and Kumatora punched it in the eyelid (for it recoiled once more). Jeff shot a rocket at it, and Poo slashed and lunged with the katana-like blade he carried. Nathan blasted it with Navenstrae before crying "Navenstrae Cretaille!" and stabbing the monster with the blade of Navenstrae.

And that's where the twist came.

A SECOND army of Escaryuba came surging up behind them. Lynn and Natalie whipped around and immediately began fighting them, but the top priority of our heroes was to kill this monster in front of them. Lucas protected himself with PK Counter, returning the beast's damage by deflecting its claws and making it hit itself. The cuts ran deep, and the water running down the sides was stained red.

Just then an Escaryuba blasted Natalie back and paid with its life, but she flew into the beast. It batted her away with a massive paw and she flew back into the sea of aliens.

Time seemed to stop.

What would happen? Would the Escaryuba invade her body like they did the poor man near Lucas' house? Would they incinerate her?

They wouldn't do anything. Nathan abandoned what he was doing (commanding the seven hellbeasts to viciously maul the creature) and aimed Navenstrae. A colossal laser beam erupted from the end and killed everything it touched, which were all Escaryuba. Finally, he spotted Natalie. An Escaryuba was trying to get her unconscious body to eat it, and two others were attempting to work her jaws.

Nathan grabbed one and snapped its frail body in half. He unpeeled the other two, effectively skinning them, then smashed them into the ground with his shoe. The other aliens watched in horror as he took up Navenstrae and took aim once more.

"You will NEVER harm ANY of these people. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!" he snarled at them.

"Never," hissed several, and these were killed. The rest fled and were never seen again.

But there was still the monster.

It reared up and prepared to crush Paula. Ness and Lucas sprinted forward, but there was no need.

"TRAEVIS!" shouted an awfully familiar screeching voice.

"FLYNN!" cried Nathan as the eagle dodged the monster it had summoned. "How did you get here?"

"I called Isaac, who was willing to send me here to this exact place. I knew something was wrong from the way things were vibrating in Onett, so I came to check and found this thing," explained Flynn.

"Isaac? Is he well?" asked Nathan. Kumatora knew who he was talking about: his best friend, who was stationed in-between the times of Onett and the Nowhere Islands, somewhere fifty years after Onett.

"Yes, he's doing excellently," responded Flynn as Ness and Lucas charged past him, around the bend down which the confused creature had flown.

There was a terrible screeching noise and the pair returned, their swords covered in blood.

"It's dead," said Ness. "We-errm-killed it."

"I can see that," said Chris, a note of amusement in his voice.

"Erghh, please put those swords away or clean them. The smell of blood is making me sick, and seeing it on two illuminated swords isn't helping any..." muttered Lynn.

"Natalie?" asked Jack suddenly; she was clearly coming to.

"Urrggh...what happened?" she asked.

Nathan quickly shot a spell at her, creating an X-ray effect. Nothing out of the ordinary. He reversed it and acted like nothing had happened.

"What was that?" asked Natalie.

"X-ray check. You're clean, no endoparasites," responded Nathan calmly. At this final mention of deadly alien endoparasites Paula passed out and Ness caught her, frowning.

"That was weird, to say the least," said a female Order member. "Come on. We'd best get back."

"Back! We have to destroy the rest of the machines! Bring more Order members and send out a search party," exclaimed Nathan.

"No need," replied Poo simply. He turned to Jeff. "Do you still have that device?"

"The sonar? Yes, but...it's...oh yeah! I tried to fix it...it works to a degree..." Jeff cried suddenly.

"To a degree?" asked Poo.

"It bounces off of raindrops and water," sighed Jeff. "Sadly."

"There's no rain down here anyway," snapped Kumatora. "Use it."

* * *

One sonar scan and three machines later (which was about five hours), they were still searching.

"Right. Eagleland is free of the machines," said Ness thoughtfully. "How many more?"

Boney broke a hole in the ceiling with Romperis and the wyverns (which had followed them, if you recall) flew out. They returned several minutes later.

"The darkness is still present over the village," reported Arcturus.

(Reminder: The machine in the mountains was destroyed by Al and Chris, they destroyed the one in the forest, and others were also destroyed, leaving only this one.)

"The well," said Lucas suddenly. "People ALWAYS hide things there."

"This isn't a person," reminded Paula, who had come to a while ago.

"Yes, but still...same mentality!" argued Duster.

They exited through the hole in the ceiling and soared out, flying relentlessly towards the village. As they approached it the wyverns dove and they leapt off of their backs midair, sailing down the well and earning astonished looks from the townspeople (who had given up trying to go outside and were now looking out of their windows everywhere for signs of the rain letting up.

"Just as I thought!" exclaimed Lucas. "Look-an opening!"

There was indeed an opening with scorch marks around it, looking like it had been blown open.

"I'm betting the machine is in there," said Lynn, surveying everything.

Flynn, who had come with them, glanced inside. "It's definitely in there. I can see it."

"Are you ready?" Ness addressed the group at large, and he recieved a positive answer.

And with one combined attack, they assaulted the machine and created a titanic explosion that sent them skyward but miracuously did not harm them, and they landed heavily on the ground outside of the well as a fireball flew out of it.

Everywhere, people were coming out, and the clouds were dissipating, and it stopped raining, and Nathan dried everything with a sweep of his hands, and there was a great celebration.

But as for the group, they quickly realized that they hadn't saved the world yet.

They had one more thing to do...

"How the hell are we supposed to get into SPACE!" exclaimed Duster.

"Wyverns," pointed out Lynn.

They mounted the wyverns and flew up into the sky, but then the wyverns stopped and flew in circles.

("You can't live in space, ya know,") reminded Lacey.

"Oh, derp," said Nathan hurriedly, performing a facepalm and casting a very fast spell. "There, that should help."

The wyverns and humans (as well as Flynn) soared out of the troposphere, through the stratosphere, further, further-

BOOM!

They broke the sound barrier at a spell from Lynn, who remembered that you need to accelerate to supersonic speeds to break free of gravity.

"Uhmm...well...we're here," said Ness. Nobody answered him.

("Sound doesn't travel in space,") reminded Paula, who was sitting behind him.

("Oops. Forgot,") laughed Ness.

King, who clung whimpering to a wyvern, flailed his legs. ("I hope we find it soon!")

("We're in space. Can't anyone hyper-accelerate us?") requested Kumatora.

Duster, who had no telepathy, was frustrated hugely at this nonverbal exchange, and settled for searching for anything. Just then he was thrown back as the group shot forwards like lightning and soared around the planet. It was largely composed of water, with only four large islands. They wondered what those were called.

* * *

Finally, Duster spotted something odd.

What was that peeking over the edge of the planet?

He tapped Kumatora on the shoulder and she saw it too, and soon everyone knew and were flying forwards directly at it.

("I can't believe we're doing this...") muttered Jack.

("We are,") snapped Flynn in his usual manner.

They alighted on a landing dock and entered a de-pressurization chamber, wyverns included. They hoped the ship had large hallways.

"My," said Paula when there was air again, and quietly. "Are we really on the Escaryuba mothership? Is this a dream?"

"It's happening, trust me," assured Nathan.

They quietly crept through the halls, unnoticed.

"For a mothership, there's an awful lack of activity," remarked Lynn in a whisper.

"It's because of..." began Natalie, but they heard voices coming down the hallway and dove into an empty room. The three aliens glanced around, unsure of what had just happened, but proceeded down the hall where they were going.

"That," said Jeff, "was a close encounter."

"Of the kind that means you're invading their ship with the aim to destroy it," snarled Ness.

"That one. Yes," stuttered Jeff, in a casual manner.

Lucas poked his head out through the door. Just then a high-pitched noise echoed through the building, and the Escaryuba all rushed out of their concurrent rooms and stood at attention in the central hall. A hologram of a very, VERY large Escaryuba appeared, and as they watched through the window of the room they listened and then dispersed when the hologram disappeared. Just then the noise echoed again, but the ever-resourceful Nathan used a quick spell, recording the noise for reasons unknown, and trapping it in a small orb.

The hologram appeared and gave a quick extension on the previous announcement before vanishing again, and the aliens dispersed once more to their rooms where they were stationed.

"We appear to be in some sort of central hub," noted Duster.

("How are we gonna escape?") whimpered Boney.

"Vanish down a side hallway? It's what they do in the movies," suggested Ness.

"That actually sounds plausible," growled Flynn, and they exited as quietly as possible. They ran down the hall, footsteps muffled by magic. The halls and doorways, they noted with pleasure, were large enough to accomodate multiple wyverns. Maybe because of the very large Escaryuba in charge of things. Maybe they needed a LOT of space. It didn't matter. It was to their benefit.

At last they reached a hallway with no doors, except for one at the very end. As they reached it, they discovered a sign.

"NOW LEAVING ROOKIE TRAINING QUARTERS. ENTERING MAIN MOTHERSHIP."

"That was the TRAINING QUARTERS!" exclaimed Kumatora, quite loudly, and Duster scowled.

"Yep. Now we need to enter the real mothership..." grimaced Chris.

"Uhm...Ness."

It was Jeff.

"Yeah?" asked Ness.

"Seeing as you're the leader of this group, shouldn't you give us a pep talk?"

"Um...okay..." began Ness. Paula watched him, an amused smile on her face. Even Nathan was grinning.

"Right. This is going to be even more dangerous than ANYTHING we've ever encountered. The caverns, Rycoulth, Thunder Tower, Threed, Onett's chimeras, the ocean floor, Tanetane, Winters, Poisonwood-it all seems easy compared to what we are about to do. We are about to enter the very heart of the enemy, and strike the blow that wins the battle. We are going to save the world.

"It will be dangerous. We could die. But there are plenty of us, and with PSI and magic and the swords by our sides we cannot lose. We will win. Lasers are nothing-NOTHING-compared to a PK Fire. A single spell would far outmatch a leaping attack at the face. Hydra is stronger than the Escaryuba, and swords don't even have muscles.

"So onward we must march! Be it to-day or to-morrow, we will march, we will conquer, we will save the world! We will be heroes...erm...again." He faltered, realizing that they already were. (At that moment he also realized that despite Nathan's powers and Navenstrae, as well as numerous good deeds, the common people of Eagleland/The Nowhere Islands had no idea who he was. The common person would scoff if you tried to tell them about Rycoulth. But it was real.)

"He's right! We've gotta go in there and fight like there's no tomorrow! Which there won't be, if we hesitate any longer," added Jack.

"That line has been used so much..." sighed Lucas, exasperated.

And Ness opened the door, and went onward to save the world.

* * *

REVIEWS! (Please do so if you have not already. It doesn't matter if you don't have an account. Just review anonymously.)

Next chapter is the last chapter. I feel sad that ROTE is coming to an end, but there will be a sequel. Now I just need a title. Any suggestions?

Just a heads-up, I AM naming the visions Neuroptical Anomalies. Because I'm getting tired of "the visions."

Does anyone actually read the after-notes besides me? Include this text in a review:

I HAZ READ TING

if you actually read this. Clearly.

Next Chapter: Nyelskeb


	22. Nyelskeb

Chapter 22: Nyelskeb

Read and review, everybody! This is the last chapter! After this, there won't be any more Rise of the Escaryuba updates! Then it's time for...TEH SEQUEL! (I will upload the sequel a bit after this chapter, so expect a link in the epilogue.

Happy final action chapter thingamajig!

PS: I'm not going to make this one too long. I REALLY want to publish the sequel, of which I'm already writing chapter 4...

* * *

Creaaak...

The door slid open with a weird creaking sound, and they slipped inside.

The long hallway was coloured a shade of dark blue, which was highly unusual compared to the grey training quarters.

Just then:

"STOP RIGHT THERE!"

A harsh, rasping voice spoke in English.

"Oh, hell..." hissed Kumatora.

An Escaryuba dressed in police uniform strode over to them.

"You are under arrest!"

("Shh! I've got a plan!") thought-spoke Ness. Duster couldn't hear him and was panicking, so Lucas whispered it in his ear while the alien officer examined Ness.

"You are the leader. You go first."

He obediently followed as the Escaryuba called out in its own tongue through the whole ship. The group was taken to a secluded police quarters, in which were several nasty-looking torture devices.

"You have committed many crimes!"

Nathan resisted the urge to blow up everything with one simple utterance.

"You shall be...killed."

As if that was dramatic, thought Ness bitterly. They all knew he would say that.

("Now!") he called.

("We haven't been over the plan,") reminded Paula.

("Just attack!")

"PK Fire!" yelled two voices.

"PK Star..." began Poo, but Ness hushed him.

"That would kill all of us! It's a ship, not Earth! The vacuum of space would boil our blood!" hissed Ness.

Poo nodded in understanding.

"PK Love!" cried Lucas.

Soon the room was a complete disaster area. The officer in charge managed to hit the red alert button and soon aliens were streaming through the doorframe.

"Fentricae Fentelcae!" shouted Nathan, and for some reason they could tell that wasn't any language...

BOOM!

Golden energy flared up all around them, erupting from everything and clouding the air. When everything finally cleared up, they saw Nathan panting on his hands and knees and a mass of bodies, all dead and all Escaryuban.

"I hate to use that," gasped Nathan; Poo quickly healed him and he stood up and brushed himself off. "It's a very powerful spell, and it's in no known language. I had to focus very hard to learn that. It's based from an ancient culture, and in another dimension, too..." His voice was clearer now; the heal had done him good.

'Let's...erm...get moving..." mumbled Ness, and he blasted the corpses out of the way with PK Blast.

They walked down the eerily empty halls, wondering where to go next.

Suddenly Nathan stopped dead.

"I'm getting a message..." he muttered.

"So am I," said Lynn, Jack, and the other Order members. Natalie frowned.

"I think it's an Order thing..." she said, unsure of the validity of that statement.

"Yep. Sharp guess," smiled Lynn, and she showed them the tattoo on the back of her hand. "If Order members are very close, they can have an Order-only conversation via these tattoos. It's not a perfect system, but it works."

"That Escaryuba! The double agent!" cried Lucas suddenly.

"Oh yeah!" exclaimed Jeff. "That guy...he's alive..."

"And he's trapped in a cage next to Nyelskeb, the leader of the Escaryuba!" shouted Jack, brandishing the spear-harpoon at the walls.

["But where's Nyelskeb?"] Nathan asked, using the powers of the tattoo. Even Order members who didn't know magic or have telepathy could communicate using these, including this Escaryuba.

["He's in a room at the end of a long golden hallway. There are security things EVERYWHERE!"] returned the Escaryuba.

"Brilliant..." muttered Nathan aloud. "Alright. We gotta find a long golden hallway..."

* * *

Three hours of walking did them no good. They had passed a strangely light-coloured wall several times, and they stood in front of it, pondering what to do next. Poo leaned aganist the wall to think, and it slid apart just like a door, revealing-

"God, I'm an idiot!" roared Nathan. "It was right here!"

"I think that someone would need a royal air in order to open the door. Nyelskeb, being an emperor of sorts, would have programmed it like that so that only he could open it. Little did he know, the prince of Dalaam would be coming to stop him," smiled Poo. Kumatora made a sort of noncommittal noise, as if thinking that this was a cop-out, but it happened, and they proceeded.

At least until a large, heavy wall fell and almost crushed them.

"It needs an eye scan..." said Ness. He tried scanning his own.

"SPECIES: HUMAN.

"ACCESS DENIED."

"Oh, great..." said Kumatora. "Nobody can open this thing."

"Wait! I'll be right back!" exclaimed Duster, who ran off and came back with a dead Escaryuba. He scanned its eye.

"SPECIES: ESCARYUBA. RANK: SOLDIER. ACCESS DENIED."

"So it has to have a high rank..." said Ness.

"I believe I can help with that," said a voice from behind them.

An Escaryuba wearing a golden plate and some sort of footwear came up behind them.

"Who are you!" bellowed Ness, whipping around. Jack followed.

"Calm down, and don't point those at me!" fretted the alien, backing away from Hydra and the spear-harpoon.

"Answer me!" commanded Ness.

"My name is General Escheb. I am second-in-command of the ship, and leader of the army."

"And why would you help us?" pressed Jack.

"For some time now, I have only been obeying orders out of fear. If Nyelskeb were to command soldiers to kill me, they would have to do it. If I commanded the army to kill Nyelskeb, they couldn't do it because he is the leader. Anyway...

"I know how to open this. You need to be ranked Lieutenant or higher, and so I can open it."

Escheb quickly scanned his own eye, and the wall opened. They rushed in before Escheb as a large mechanical beast dropped down.

"STATE. NAME."

"General Escheb Vrylken."

"TRAITOR!" shouted a different voice. "YOU HAVE LET THEM IN!"

"YOU BEAST!" bellowed Escheb. "YOU'RE PURE EVIL! YOU WERE FINE UNTIL YOU MET THAT GYGATH!"

"So Gygath has something to do with it..." muttered Paula.

"RYCOULTH TOO!"

"Both of them!" cried Jeff in surprise.

"You know those pieces of intergalatic space junk?" demanded Escheb.

"All too well," grumbled Duster.

"Come on. This thing is going to attack at any-"

The monster sprang and Nathan hit it with a bolt from Navenstrae; it flew backwards and a dual PK Crescent hit it. It exploded, to be replaced by four miniatures.

"Crap!" shouted Ness.

"A worse expletive!" yelled Kumatora as she ducked to avoid a barrage of laser shots from one, and then leapt up to dodge a lone sizzling laser. The seven Order members (Chris, Jack, Nathan, Lynn, and three others) immediately ran forwards, and as Jack hit one with his harpoon as he ran (and it split into four four-foot high beasts) Lynn unleashed a lightningbolt from her sword, and Chris hit two of the mini-miniatures with glaives. Nathan hit three with a small bolt of energy, and the three others (whose names are unstated) fought back-to-back-to-back using a sword, a lance, and a battleaxe. Their wyverns, accompanying them, silently glided up and crushed and incinerated miniatures.

BOOM!

Something happened to cause an explosion, but all of a sudden there was no trace of the monster that had spawned minatures of itself.

"That takes care of that," said Nathan, dusting his hands off.

The group proceeded down the hallway, with Escheb and his laser machine gun leading the way. They were nearing the door, and as Ness stepped forwards panels in the walls slid up and revealed mounted laser turrets.

"What's the need for all this security!" bellowed Ness as he deflected a laser with Hydra, and whirled to deflect another.

"I really don't know," said Duster as he accidentally set off the Siren Beetle.

The high-pitched screaming and wailing coming from the large beetle caused the guns to cease firing and shatter, and all of them stared in amazement. Duster's accident had saved them all from a laser-y death!

"Come on, let's save the world!" roared Ness, and he blasted the door out of the frame, and stepped into the darkened room, only to be confronted with a laser of dark energy. Hydra suddenly glowed brightly and pointed at the laser before unleashing a larger one of its own, trumping the darkness and hitting the caster of the first.

"So. You have found me."

The huge Escaryuba got up quickly and roughly, only to be assailed by wyverns. And then-

"RAAAAAH!"

Escheb had vanished and there was a battle cry from behind them.

A sea of Escaryuba was streaming in from behind them.

"That triple-crossing beast!" spat Kumatora, but the Escaryuba ran right by them, headed by Escheb, and confronted Nyelskeb directly.

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" screamed Escheb.

"I have done no-"

"SHUT-UP!" roared about fifty aliens, for some reason speaking in English-maybe it was the presence of humans that weren't enemies anymore?

"You have killed hundreds of people! The larvae of your race are endoparasitic and quickly kill those who consume them! You shoot people, aim to destroy buildings, try to blow up cities, brainwash hundreds of young children to kill, hand them WEAPONS, and try to destroy this place we all call home, Earth!"

It was Ness.

"So many lives! And you wouldn't care if you killed every living being in the universe, you abominable star-spawned endoparasitic prat, would you!"

"I would enjoy seeing your body pecked lifeless by vultures, and dessicated to boot!" shouted Paula. "If you didn't kill them all!"

"You, sir, should pay for your crimes," said Jeff politely.

"The evil of your race has devastated our country! While passing to the main planet, you have seen fit to kill our citizens and invade our towns! I am lucky that I was with my friends, for I would have died like the girl I had fallen in love with! I saw her die, and I could do nothing as my own, for my powerful PSI would destroy more than it would save, and I could have even hit her!" said Poo, quietly but clearly.

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO MY HOMETOWN! SO MANY DISAPPEARANCES! SO MANY DEATHS!" shouted Lucas.

King and Boney knew Nyelskeb wouldn't hear their telepathy, but they barked loudly to make their point.

"You almost killed us so many times...I would love for the Siren Beetle to lay eggs in your ears, and that the young always screamed!"

"I curse you," said Kumatora, in a manner most unlike herself, "and my curse is that you be what you already are." And then, in her usual manner, "You abominable beastly-"

Well, you can guess the rest...

"You conversed and agreed with two monstrous entities that I have fought for three years," spat Nathan. "You should have known better."

The rest said similar things, and I can't write them because it would be re-writing the above.

"Yes, you HAVE done wrong, and you're going to pay!" roared Ness, and the whole group drew the sharpest objects they had-Jeff used an old object, Paula a shard of an old frying pan-and approached him.

Then:

"Luznae ocht Nervanaille!"

Nyelskeb's eyes turned dark, and Nathan stopped in his tracks.

Before anything else happened, time seemed to stop, and Nathan yelled, "EKSPULCA!"

A mass of dark cloudy ectoplasm burst from Nyelskeb's being, and he slumped over, unconscious.

"What happened?" wondered Paula, curiously.

"He was possessed by an excess of dark energy. Too much exposure to Rycoulth and Gygath," explained Nathan. "He gave it away by starting to use that dark spell and the darkening of his eyes."

"Most peculiar. I see that he is not dead," remarked Poo.

"No, he isn't. We'll let the Escaryuba deal with him, he's THEIR leader, after all," returned Nathan. "In the meantime-"

He swept his arms across the group.

"You're honorary members of the Order of the Dragon. Nobody could forget your bravery on this journey. And yes, I have the authority to do this, I'm second-in-command, remember?" he added, grinning, as he noticed Paula's hesitant look.

He looked around.

"You guys are always welcome on planet Earth, as long as you're peaceful," said Ness. "I know it wasn't you guys...it was him, and I hope we can forgive one another."

"Agreed," rose a mass of alien voices, and after a farewell, the group faced Ness.

"Let's go home," he said, and arm in arm, they left the ship, notifying the hostile rookies of what had happened. They flew back out into space, and back home, and Ness and his friends (and dog) went back to Eagleland by portal after a very teary farewell, and they prepared to return to their normal boring lives.

* * *

SPECIAL ENDING!

And so concludes the sequence of events I call Rise of the Escaryuba. It's been great writing this, and the sequel has been uploaded! It's called "Curses to be Broken," and although it will never be the same as ROTE I hope it will be ever better quality!

Thanks to everyone who made all of this possible, including my supportive parents and fans (notably, PKLOVEOMEGA, those reviews made it seem like I had more fans, lol), and the guy on smashforums dot net who reviewed this and pointed out the multiple deus ex machinas. There won't be as many in the sequel, which is probably uploaded as you read this, and you can read it at:

Thank you all!

-A-Lord-Over-Birds, or lordofroosters (whatever you prefer to call me)

Next Chapter: ...Oh, wait. Derp.

**HERE'S THE SEQUEL!:** .net/s/6676903/1/Curses_to_be_Broken

Just paste the last part after the dot net into the browser, after the slash, so:

http:/ w w w dot fanfiction dot net/s/6676903/1/Curses_to_be_Broken

I can't properly paste it in, because this site doesn't allow linking to even other stories.


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